Japanese Love Story
by Crystal of Moonlight
Summary: Ryou's life isn't happy, with family problems and more. Bakura, who studies with him at MBA classes, is one of his best friends. As one day Malik, a guy full of life, moves into the street many things change. But he hides a secret. OOCness, Shonen-ai!
1. Chapter 1 Welcome to my life

**Summary: **

**Ryou's life was normal, well normal for him at least. He lived together with his father, his grandpa, his little brother and his little sister. But you couldn't call them a happy family. Everything was tainted with sadness and quarrel. Yes... Ryou's life wasn't easy. His friend Bakura wasn't a big help either. He had to deal with his own problems and his parents.  
****When one day a guy called Malik appears, Ryou's life will be turned upside down. The question is: Will it get better or worse?  
-****Shonen-ai **

**Okay, so I've decided to go on with this story because I really like the idea and I want to write it down before I forget everything again. Maybe you know the movie 'Tomorrow may or may not be'. That's where I got the idea from. But I won't stick completely to the movie, maybe only at the beginning or when I really have to. So for those of you who know the movie: I'm not sure if the end of this story will be the same end as in the movie. Maybe it will be, maybe not.**

**Well, enough jabbering for now, let's start. The story shall be funny in some places, sad in other places. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! and I don't own the movie 'Tomorrow may or may not be'.**

**Chapter 1 Welcome to my life**

**Ryou's P.O.V**

I sighed as a breeze made my long white hair wave. Today was one of those cloudy days where the sun very rarely broke through the thick curtain of clouds that hung in the sky. Certainly, it would rain soon.

I looked over the city from where I stood on a rooftop. It wasn't only any rooftop, no, it was the rooftop my mother had brought me to when I was younger. And when she had still been alive.

Whenever I missed her, I came here because then I felt that she was closer. I smiled sadly as I remembered the nice moments we had spent together here on the rooftop. For hours, we had watched the birds flying over the city and the people down on the streets, busy with whatever it was they did. We had watched the sunset and how the darkness slowly had covered the whole city underneath its coat. My mother and I... Back then, my life had been carefree, I'd been happy, everyone had been happy. And then suddenly...

I sighed again. A raindrop fell on my arm at the same time as a tear ran down my face. I looked up to the sky that was clothed with heavy gray clouds. I should better go home before I would get too wet. Home... If you could call it that.

I am, by the way, Ryou Bakura and this is my story.

As I came home this at noon, my father was telephoning. Quietly, I took off my shoes and listened to what he said.

"I understand, Mr. Toyoto, but try and understand my problem.... I must have the loan extension, please. I know the game shop is centrally situated. But there's competition around, Mr. Toyoto..."

After my mother had passed away, the entire responsibility of the family had fallen on him. He'd had to quit his dream job as an archeologist where he had traveled a lot and had barely been at home, and instead he now ran a game shop, so that he was nearly always at home to look for my younger siblings and to keep house. Everything was difficult for him since mom was gone, but he never allowed us to ever feel the burden of his sorrows.

"Thank you... I", he put down the receiver.

I went back to the front door and opened and closed it noisily. He shouldn't know that I'd heard everything because he always tried to keep his problems away from us.

"I'm home", I called. Then, I walked into the kitchen.

"Where have you been the whole morning?", he asked.

"Rooftop", I muttered. He knew that it was the place where I always went when I had longing for my mother, when I was sad, when I needed a time to relax, when I wanted a rest from my stressful and annoying everyday life.

I saw the mail lying on the table and took a look at it.

"Bills... bills... bills... Private and confidential?", I read.

"That's mine", he said and took the letter.

I looked at the next letter and frowned. "What's this?", I asked. "This is Joey's mail again. When does the mailman finally learn that our house number is twenty and not twenty two? I think he needs glasses. He always..."

I paused as I saw that my father's eyes were slightly red. "Were you crying?", I asked.

"No", he answered. "_You_ were crying..."

"No dad", I said.

My father and I... We lied to each other every day, how sad that may sound.

I eyed the last latter. "Marriage bureau?", I asked and couldn't believe what I read. "Marriage bureau?! What does that mean? Huh?"

"Why don't you ask your grandfather?", my father replied. "Certainly it is a new plan to get you a wife."

"But I don't want to get married. And I don't want a wife. I don't like women! I'm gay! Why doesn't grandpa leave me alone?", I asked angrily.

"Why doesn't he just leave?", my father muttered.

"Dad. Where is he?", I asked.

He grimaced. "You have three guesses."

I rolled my eyes. Surely, he and his other old friends were playing card games, like every day at that time. I think it's annoying. Instead that he would help my father with keeping the house he wasted the time with games. And with trying to make a mess of my life.

Enraged, I ran up the stairs and walked to grandpa's room. I already heard him and his friends shouting "Go, Dark Magician!", and stuff like that. I shook my head. As if the cards could hear them. Stupid game...

My grandpa... He had three dreams.

One, that the monsters of his stupid card game 'Duel monsters' would be real and that he would be Duel Monsters champion. (Ha, as if that would ever happen.)

Two, that I would marry a woman. (It was more likely that his first dream would come true than this dream.)

And three... that my father would die.

"Jii-chan!", I shouted and opened the door, the letter with the title 'Marriage bureau' and photos of three women in my hand.

None of the old men had noticed me. They still played their game. "JII-CHAN!", I yelled.

They turned their head towards me.

"Oh God! He interrupted us while we were dueling!", one of his friends said, appalled.

"How dare you!", the other one said.

"Don't you have any shame?", my grandpa asked.

"Don't you have any shame?", I countered and hold the letter and the photos out to him. "What is this? Huh? What's this?"

He furrowed his brow and took the photos. As he looked at them, his eyes widened and he beamed with joy.

"Wow! Pictures from the Marriage bureau! That was fast!", grandpa said.

"And all three of them are so pretty", one of his friend said. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I didn't know the names of his friends.

"Three? They look like one and the same to me", I told him.

Suddenly, he and his friends began to chatter about how good-looking these women were and stuff.

"Jii-chan! I'm not interested in marrying anyone and much less if it is a woman. You know that!", I interrupted them.

"But, son, if you don't marry a woman, how will you have children?", grandpa asked.

"If I want, I can have children. There's no need to marry a woman", I told him.

Grandpa and his two friends looked terrified.

I left grandpa's room and walked into the room of my siblings, Amane and Yugi. Yugi was still in his pyjama and watched TV, while Amane played with her dollhouse.

"Come on, come on", Yugi said. "Yes!", he shouted as one of the basketball players scored.

He always watched basketball on TV, because that was one of the few things he could do. And when he didn't watch basketball, he played card games like grandpa. I rather saw him watching TV than playing this stupid game. In the end he would maybe end like grandpa!  
Yugi was handicapped, you must know. Both his legs were crippled, so that he could only walk with crutches. His dream was to become a basketball player when he was grown up, but it was only a dream and would always only be one. Though he couldn't play basketball like other kids, he was irritating and nerving as much as a normal child.

"Yugi!", I said and covered my ears with my hands because he shouted so loud. Quickly, I went to the TV and turned it off. "Whenever I come, you sit around and watch basketball."

He made puppy dog eyes. "But bro... Just because I can't play doesn't mean I can't see..."

"Oh no, no, no, no! Not the puppy dog eyes!", I said and shook my head. "They don't work with me."

He pouted.

"Alright?", I asked. He nodded. "Then hurry up. Lunch is almost ready. Amane, help your brother."

"Bro, have you already seen my new dolls?", Amane asked me.

"Amane! Stop playing and help instead", I said again. She didn't listen to me. I crouched down next to her.

"This is father, this is you, this is Yugi, that's me and this-", she explained.

Just as she was about to tell me that the last doll was grandpa, the door to the room swung open and grandpa came in.

"Oh! So you are awake, Yugi!", he said and sat down next to him. He laid his arm around Yugi's shoulder. "How are you, son? I hope fine. You're fine, right?"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Yes jii-chan, I'm fine."

"Thank God! Well, if you want to we can play some card games later..."

"Good morning, jii-chan!", Amane said smiling and stood up from where she was playing at the floor.

Grandpa merely waved with his hand. "Yeah, yeah..." Then he continued to talk with Yugi.

I saw the smile on the face of my little sister fade and it made me sad.

Grandpa's love for Yugi was only matched by his hatred for Amane. Amane was adopted and probably that's why grandpa didn't consider her.

And Amane... she always kept the grandpa-doll away from her perfect family in the dollhouse.

It was every day like this. Every day...

We sat down at the table in our kitchen. And as soon as we sat, the daily bickering between my father and grandpa began. It was unnerving. I didn't know how much longer I could stand it.

"And?", Yugi leaned over to me.

"Shut up", I told him. The quarreling between my father and grandpa was annoying enough. I didn't need that Yugi annoyed me now, too.

"They'll argue", Yugi continued. I ignored him.

"Bet", he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Stop bugging", I told him.

He sighed. "Oh, come on. It's just one dollar."

I shook my head. It wasn't about the one dollar why I didn't want to bet. It was about the principle. I hated it when my father and my grandpa argued. But apparently, Yugi didn't seem to notice that.

"What's for lunch?", grandpa asked as my father put the dishes on the table.

"Pizza", father answered.

"Again? So what's new? We eat that almost every day. And if it isn't frozen pizza, is some other frozen food. Poor son-in-law... of British origin... doesn't know how to make decent Japanese meals", grandpa said. "Do you know something, Ryou?", he asked me.

I looked at him, sighed mentally and shook my head. "Last night, I had a wonderful dream. I was eating 'Toriniku no tatsuta-age'. Oh... how I miss real Japanese food..."

"If you miss that food so much, why don't you go to one of those restaurants and come never back if you hate this food so much", my father said. "What do you think, Ryou?"

I sighed and gave my attention to my pizza while I tried to ignore my father and my grandfather's arguing.

"No, no, no!", grandpa said. "I'm going nowhere. If I leave, what will happen to these children?"

My father looked at grandpa. His face full of anger, full of hate for the person that unfortunately was his father-in-law.

"I'm very concerned about them", grandpa continued and ruffled Yugi's hair, much to the boy's dislike.

"Yeah, you care sacrificially for them.", father countered sarcastically and laid his arm around Amane. "I am only concerned about _them_", father said and emphasized the 'them', meaning Yugi, me AND Amane, who was always forgotten (accidentally or not) by grandpa.

Grandpa scoffed. "Yes, of course... Why would _you_ be concerned about _me_? Who am I to you? If only my daughter was alive today..."

"Only if she was alive...", my father said.

I clenched my fist. "Stop it! Just stop it!", I shouted and breathed heavily. Angry, I looked at them and stood up. I got my purse out of my jeans and thrust a one dollar bill into Yugi's hand.

"Here's your dollar", I said to Yugi. "As usual. Are you happy now?"

Then I addressed my father and my grandfather. "And both of you... just forget it."

I walked out of the kitchen, put my shoes and my coat on and stormed out of the house. I had to go away. Just away from them and their constant bickering.

In former times, I had been very calm and shy and I'd rarely worked up over something. But this had been long ago. Since my mother's death, thus the beginning of the quarreling between my father and my grandpa, I'd lost my patience more and more and got upset very easily. I tried to be not at home as often as I could, so that I wouldn't hear them arguing, but I couldn't avoid it always.

And like this it was every day. Sad, huh? Well, for me it was daily routine. First father and grandpa's fight, that was followed by my angry walkout...

... and then listening to my stupid neighbor Joey's stupid chatter.

Like every other day, I walked to the coffee shop, where Joey normally was at this time. He stood at the counter and ordered something.

I tapped his shoulder. He turned round.

"Oh, hi, Ryou! One minute", he said and turned to the vender again. "Okay, make dat two glazed doughnuts, two blueberry muffins, two chocolate frappe chinos. And what do ya want?", he now turned to me again.

Yes, that's Joey. My next door neighbor and unfortunately my best friend. He could eat all the time, what he actually did. He was always hungry. That was his first problem. His second was, that he was the male definition for what you could call a 'dumb blonde' and that he could babble you your ears off. But he was funny and honest and his heart was in the right place, that's probably the reason why I liked him. We knew each other since our first day at High School and I was happy that I was his friend, although if he could be quite annoying at times.

"Ryou? Hoo-hoo? Earth to Ryou?"

A hand waved in front of my face and brought me out of my thoughts. I shook my head.

"What?", I asked.

"Tell what ya want", Joey said.

"Uh, one double espresso-to-go, please", I said.

After we got what we'd ordered, we left the coffee shop and walked around in the city.

"Oh, I just forgot", I said and pulled Joey's mail out of my pocket. "Here's your letter. It came to our house again. I don't know if the mailman can't read or something. I mean, if he can't distinguish our house numbers, then he could at least read the name that is written on the letter."

Joey took the letter and packed it away.

"So, what are we going to do now?", he asked me.

I shrugged. "Let's go into the park or something", I said.

"Yeah, dat sounds like a good idea. The last time I've been in the park seems like months ago, but do ya know what's funny? Actually I was there yesterday. Ha. And yet it seems like I haven't been there for months", he babbled.

I only nodded and smiled. Yeah. Very funny... Yeah, yeah, Joey is such a wisecracker. That's sarcasm, by the way.

Anyway... So we went to the park.

While I listened to Joey's random jabbering, I was suddenly pushed what caused me to pour my whole espresso over me.

Joey stopped. "Oh my god, oh my god", he said and pulled a tissue out of his pocket and tried to rub the espresso off while I just stood there gaping.

"Just look at me! Just look at me!", I said, upset.

"Oh my god!", Joey shouted. "Just look at him!" He pointed to a guy who stood under a tree nearby. Had I mentioned that Joey was gay, too?

"Look at me. I'm out of control", the boy sang with his headphones on and nodding to the rhythm of his music.

"He's so cute!", Joey said.

"Joey! Look at me!", I said angry. My whole coat was covered with espresso.

"But I see ya every day", Joey said. "He's so cute! And hot. Wow."

"Argh, shut up!", I said. "Just shut up!"

He looked at me with wide eyes.

"Boys, boys, boys", I said. "That's all your interested in. What will happen? You will get the boy you want, you will marry him, have children and then... He will leave you and go away. What will you do then? Huh?"

"I will marry again. What else?", Joey answered. I slapped my forehead.

"Forget it... just. Argh", I turned and walked off.

It will end like I'd said. Like it happened every day thousands times and worldwide. You fall in love and then, you'll get left alone. True love? There was no such thing.

* * *

**Well, that was chapter 1. I hope you liked it.  
****  
Some words I think I should explain:****  
'Toriniku no tatsuta-age' = fried marinaded chicken meat  
'Jii-chan' = Japanese for 'grandpa'**

**I tried as often as I could that I don't stick to the movie when I don't have to, because I want to bring a personal touch into the story.**

**Oh, btw, Ryou is about twenty-three in this story.**

**Bakura will appear in the next chapter. I don't know when exactly Malik will appear. Maybe already in the next chapter, maybe not until chapter three.**

**That is if you like this story. Because if nobody likes it, then I won't continue to write it.**

**Please review, okay? But no flames, please! And if you have any questions, then you can ask, of course.**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	2. Chapter 2 The white haired guy, Bakura

**Hello! I'm back with chapter 2, although nobody reviewed, what made me a bit sad. And I've changed the title into 'Japanese Love Story'.**

**Anyways, I hope you like the chapter. ^-^**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Yu-Gi-Oh! nor the movie 'Tomorrow may never come' aka 'Kal ho naa ho'.**

**Chapter 2 The white haired guy, Bakura**

**Ryou's P.O.V**

"God. I hate this rain...", I muttered to myself.

It was evening, meanwhile and I stood under my umbrella, that protected me from the hated rain, in front of the fountain in the center of Domino City. Like always at this time, Monday to Friday. I waited. And like always, the one I waited for was late.

"I. Hate. Rain.", I said to myself. Here in Domino, it rained almost every day. I should be used to the rain, I know, but I'm afraid that I'm not although I've always lived here. Rain was just so... wet and usually cold. It made puddles everywhere and it made the ground muddy. I just didn't like rain.

"Ryou!"

I suddenly heard someone calling my name. I turned around. A white haired figure came running towards me, holding his brief bag over his head because of the rain.

The white haired figure was, by the way, my friend Bakura. Haramey Bakura. Son of Haramey Numair and Nanami. The Harameys ran some of the most popular food chains in Japan. Nihonshoku was the name.

Bakura lived alone in Domino City. As for work, in the last three years Bakura had made no progress.

I didn't know what he worked exactly. He sat in an office and telephoned and made things with the computer, I think. I've never asked him. Why? I don't know.

Bakura was always late and I by now I could imagine what his reasons for coming late were...

**Author's P.O.V**

After he had taken a look at the clock, Bakura realized that it was already time to go.

//I don't want to come too late again or Ryou'll give me hell...//, he thought.

Quickly, he stood up, took a last sip of his coffee and went out of his office that was in a big building where many offices were.

"Bye guys", he muttered to his employees as he walked past their offices. "Hey, have fun?", he asked an employee that was rather new.

"Yes, thank you", she answered.

"Good", he said and looked at his watch. Still time.

As he walked in the direction of the door, he saw a blonde woman.

"Okay. So if we can get this file with this...", she said to a man that stood in front of her desk.

"Ah, Julia", Bakura said to himself and walked towards her. "Dinner at eight?", he tested how he should ask her. "Dinner at eight... eight... Dinner."

But the man that stood in front of Julia's desk thwarted his plans.

"Dinner at eight?", the man asked Julia.

"Yeah", she replied.

"Alright. Then I'm going to pick you up at 7.30", the man said.

Julia agreed. She hadn't even noticed Bakura.

Poor Bakura. He wasn't as cool as he thought he was. Sighing, he went to the elevator.

But...

He never stopped trying.

In the elevator where a giant man and behind the man stood a pretty woman, putting her make-up on. Carefully, Bakura walked past the man and stood besides the woman.

He gave the woman a nod. She smiled.

"Hey, Gorgeous!", Bakura said, looking at the woman.

"Are you talking to me?", she asked.

"Who else? Do you think I was talking to this rhino here?", Bakura smirked and pointed to the huge man in the middle of the elevator whose back was turned to Bakura and the woman.

"My name is Bakura. I-", Bakura said.

"Don't bother. I'm married", the woman interrupted him.

"So what?", Bakura grinned. "So what if you are married..."

"To him", she pointed to the giant man.

Uh-oh. Bakura gulped and looked up at the giant.

And when the elevator arrived at the first story and opened, you could see the giant man collaring Bakura.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it", Bakura apologized while the woman shouted desperately to her husband: "Put him down! Put him down!"

"I don't even like her", Bakura said.

"Put him down!", the woman shouted again and the giant man let go of Bakura all of a sudden.

Gasping for air, Bakura slid down to the ground while the woman and the giant left the elevator.

"Bye! Take care!", the woman said to him and then, she was gone.

Down at the ground, Bakura remembered the reason why he actually left his office.

"Ryou!", he said. He jumped to his feet and began to run, because now, he would certainly be late.

**Ryou's P.O.V**

So, that's Haramey Bakura. You surely wonder how I'd gotten to know him, right? For the last year I've been studying with him in the MBA business classes.

"Sorry, I'm late", he said, panting because he had run the whole way from his office to where I waited for him.

"Come on. Let's go", I told him and he went under my umbrella.

We headed in the direction of our evening classes. It still rained. It felt like the sky was falling down or something.

"What happened?", I asked Bakura. He knew exactly what I aimed at.

"Nothing", he muttered. "I was coming down the elevator and..."

I understood.

"What's the girl's name?", I asked him. "Or was it a boy?" Because with Bakura, you never know what it was. He was bi, but I think he preferred women way more than boys, though he'd had a few boyfriends in the past, or so he'd told me.

"A Girl... I don't know her name...", he replied.

"Her husband hit you. Or was it her boyfriend?"

"Husband...", Bakura answered.

"What was his name?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"I don't know. Maybe he told you before he seized you by the collar", I answered, grinning a tiny little bit.

Bakura looked slightly angry. "Husband... tsk", he muttered under his breath.

"Oh, Bakura", I began. "I'm feeling so sorry..."

"It's okay", Bakura told me.

"... that he didn't hit you more...", I said.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

I poked him playfully in his side. "I'm just kidding."

"Hmm", he nodded. "So... How was your weekend?"

"Fantastic! I went to London and Paris...", I answered ironically.

"Ah. Anyway, my weekend was rocking", he told me and I looked at him.

"Really?"I raised my eyebrows.

"Yeah. Laila and I. In the same room... on the same bed... the whole weekend", he explained.

I looked disgusted away and made a gagging sound.

"You know what I mean?", he asked and elbowed me.

"Oh, please!" What a disgusting imagination.

Imagine: Bakura saying something like:"Oh... Ah, Laila, stop it. Not there. Stop it. No, stop it..." while Laila licked his face.

Because you have to know: Laila is Bakura's dog.

Soon after, we arrived at the evening classes and sat down next to each other.

"Thank God that you're not like the other boys or like girls in Domino City", Bakura suddenly said. I looked at him, a confused expression on my face.

"You are neither sexy, nor beautiful and you always have time for me", he told me. I couldn't believe what I heard. "I like you", he added.

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Bakura", I said sarcastically. "If it wasn't for you, I would have died... Jerk!", I added.

He looked at me and I shook my head. Yes, Bakura always had the right words for the every moment. I began to doodle on my note pad.

As the door opened and a handsome boy with raven black hair, done in a ponytail, and a read headband with a black diamond like pattern came in, I didn't have to guess twice to know that Bakura had to be over the moon. Sure, the boy was gorgeous, but not my type, but Bakura's.

Bakura tapped on my shoulder. I rolled my eyes.

"Duke Devlin", I told Bakura, who looked fascinated at the new arrival. "New entry. Today is his first day."

Bakura waved to get Duke's attention.

"He's divorced, for God's sake, leave him alone", I said to Bakura, but he didn't listen to me. Of course not. I hadn't expected that he would. You surely wonder how I got to know all those things about Duke, huh? Well, that's my secret.

"Hi", Bakura said nonchalantly and I asked myself how Bakura managed it to know that Duke was gay. I mean, he could have been divorced from a woman, too. Maybe Bakura had sort of a talent to see if somebody was gay or not, because sometimes it wasn't that obvious. Okay, but in this case, it was obvious.

"Hi", Duke answered.

"Please sit", Bakura told Duke.

"Where?", Duke asked.

"I'd say in my heart... but for now... right behind me", Bakura said and pointed to the seat behind him.

"Okay", Duke said.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, aren't you poetic, Bakura?", I whispered, but my white-haired friend ignored what I said.

Instead Bakura looked at me happily, and I only shook my head and sighed. Every day, sometimes even every hour, he found a new person who he thought was hot and stuff.

"Watch this", he said to me. He pulled a pen and a piece of paper out of his brief bag and began to write something.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Duke. I had to suppress a smile as I saw that he didn't sit down behind Bakura. Instead, an old woman did. I could imagine what was bound to happen...

_Dinner at 9 _Bakura wrote on the piece of paper. He folded it together and gave the little letter backwards, without looking if Duke really sat behind him.

I watched the old woman. Hesitantly, she took the letter and read it, while Bakura grinned from ear to ear.

The old woman then also wrote something on the piece of paper and tapped Bakura on his shoulder, giving him the letter back. Yet, he hadn't looked who backwards. But certainly, he soon would. And then he would see who he had invited for dinner.

Bakura unfolded the letter and showed me proudly the answer on his question.

_I'd love to. _

He turned around and froze as he saw the old woman sitting behind him.

I leaned over to him and whispered: "Good job. I think you'll make her very happy." I grinned.

Bakura sighed.

A little later, he pulled a small, black book out of his bag.

"Please don't, okay?", he told me. I nodded and smiled.

I always wondered what Bakura wrote down in his black diary. I've never asked him about it.

Bakura is mad.

When I'd met him the first time, I hadn't liked him at all. But today, he was my friend... a very close friend.

Many people probably wondered why I was friends with him. Because he was so different from me. He was... how shall I describe him? He was different than every other person I've met before. He could be funny or angry or evil or happy or... I don't know. He was crazy. But basically, he was a nice guy, even if he didn't want to show it to everyone. He really had a good heart. And this I can vouch for... you know why?

Because this night, he did not cancel his date.

Haramey Bakura...

I forgot about all my family problems when I was with him. He distracted me from my worries, my anger, from everything. How unpleasant my day might have been... Bakura managed it always to distract me from my problems, even if it was only for a while. He always listened to what I said, he listened to my problems and I listened to his in return.

I was glad that I'd met him. What would I do without him? He was the one, who brought at least some rays of sunshine into my mainly joyless life.

* * *

**That was chapter 2. I hope you liked it. I know, it's a bit short, but I thought that this was a good moment to end this chapter.**

**So... I've thought of a good last name for Bakura for a long time. In the end, I decided to take the Arabic word for 'thief': Haramey. As far as I know it is the word for thief, but I'm not sure, 'cause I don't speak Arabic. Well, I don't think that Bakura's last name is that important for the story anyway.**

**And I have to say, that I sometimes have to change the P.O.V because... I just have to. I hope it doesn't confuse you or something.**

**Oh, and soon Malik will appear, I promise. What do you think will happen when he appears? This is a romance story, after all. But I didn't mention which shippings there would be in this story... I'd love to hear what you think.**

**Btw, I would be really happy if somebody would review. Please, it's just one click on the button and write some words and make me happy. I've enabled anonymous reviews, so all of you can review. **

**So, don't forget to leave me a review and tell me how you think about this story or tell me if I've made any grammar mistakes. I'd be really glad if I would get some reviews. Please...**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	3. Chapter 3 From Egypt to Japan

**Yo, guys!**

**Thanks for the reviews. They made me happy. ^-^ It's good to hear that people like reading this story.**

**Well, enough talk. Let's start with the chapter. :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!, though I wished I would. I think owning it would be the best present ever, don't you agree? **

**Chapter 3 From Egypt to Japan**

**Ryou's P.O.V**

The evening classes were over now, and I walked home. I stood in front of the front door, as I heard a cry. Quickly, I pulled out my key and opened the door. And just as I went in, I heard it.

_Slap_

I looked what had happened and saw Yugi lying at the bottom of the stairs, his crutches besides him, and behind him my grandfather and Amane. Amane hold her cheek and whimpered softly. Apparently, grandpa had slapped her.

Grandpa helped Yugi to his feet.

"Are you alright, my son? I hope you are not hurt...", grandpa said.

"Sorry, jii-chan...", Amane sobbed, tears flowing down her cheeks. "Sorry, jii-chan."

As Yugi was on his feet again and could stand with the help of the crutches, grandpa turned around all of a sudden, an angry expression on his face. He grabbed Amane by her shoulders and began to shake her.

I was like paralyzed. I couldn't move. I couldn't help my little sister.

"What? Sorry? Can't you look where you're going? What if my Yugi got hurt? Huh? What then?", grandpa yelled at her. Amane still sobbed and mumbled that she was sorry.

"What are you doing?", my father shouted. He rushed to Amane's side and freed her from grandpa's grip. "She's just a child!"

"A child? You have spoilt her! She ran into Yugi and he fell! It's her duty to take care of her brother!", grandpa yelled at my father.

"And it's your duty to forgive, not to raise your hand!", my father shouted back.

"I haven't been able to forgive you... so, who's she?", grandpa said.

"What? Forgive me? What have I done?", my father asked.

"Forget it...", grandpa said.

"No, no! Please say it! What the hell have I done?", my father shouted.

"Listen. Just keep quiet", grandpa told my father.

"Tsk. The same comment every day. Please blurt it out today", my father said.

"Don't make me open my mouth!", grandpa said.

"Why? Are you scared? Please say...", my father teased.

By now, grandpa's head was red like a tomato from his anger. His eyes narrowed.

"It's because of you that my daughter-"

"JII-CHAN!", I yelled. I had snapped out of my stare. My father and my grandfather stared at me. It was about time that I stopped them. "Enough!", I said, breathing heavily.

We all looked at each other in silence. After a while, my grandpa averted his gaze and my father stared at the floor.

The fact that was known all these years but never spoken aloud, was mentioned today.

My mother's death was not caused by an accident.

She had taken her own life... she had committed suicide.

My father took Amane in his arms, where she cried again. My grandpa still looked angry. He darted a detesting glance at Amane.

"The truth is always bitter", grandpa said, before he turned to go into the kitchen.

"No one knows the truth. Not even you", my father said. Then, he went upstairs with Amane and Yugi.

I still stood in the doorframe, breathing heavily, because I was angry at my grandpa. I couldn't understand why he hated Amane so much. Why he hated my father so much...

I followed my father and my siblings upstairs. They sat in Amane and Yugi's room, on the bed. My siblings sat on my father's lap.

I stopped at the door and listened.

They all cried. My father, Amane and Yugi.

"Stop it, Amane...", he said. "Stop it. Don't cry now...", he said and patted her hair.

"He hates me", Amane sobbed.

"No, darling. He doesn't hate you", my father said.

"But he hates you", Yugi said and pointed at my father.

"Ssh", my father said and pressed them to him. "Don't say that... He's just angry now... Everything will be alright.

"When will everything be alright?", Yugi asked. A short moment of silence followed.

"Do you know that when I was young, I used to cry over little things?", my father began. "And my mother used to tell me that some day, angels will be send out to all of us to wipe away our tears", my father told them.

"Angel?", Amane asked.

"Yes, an angel, darling. An angel", my father said. "Our angel will come and he will wipe away all our tears. He will give us lots of happiness and he will leave our sorrow somewhere far away."

"When will our angel come, daddy?", Amane sobbed.

"Soon, darling... soon...", my father answered.

I walked slowly into the room.

"If you want, we can pray and ask for an angel", my father suggested. Amane and Yugi nodded. They clasped their hands, closed their eyes and started to pray. To pray for an angel. Hesitantly, I walked closer to them. Then, I clasped my hands and closed my eyes, too, and prayed for an angel that would help us.

//Please... if you up there are listening... bring some light into these dark times//, I thought. //Just a little light...//

**(A little time prior, at the beginning of this day...)**

**Malik's P.O.V**

The morning-wind blew through my hair, making it wave. The air smelled cool, the water below was fairly quiet. The only noise was made by the ship on its bow I stood on. The small ship that brought me and my brother, Odion, from Egypt to Japan.

The past few years, Odion and I had lived alone in Egypt, but now, five years after the death of our father, we've decided to finally follow our sister, Ishizu, to Japan, because Egypt didn't seem as a home to us anymore.

I could already see the silhouettes of Domino City, in front of a cloud-covered horizon. Not much longer and our ship will arrive in the harbor.

I'd only come hear once; it was shortly after Ishizu had moved here. I'd still been a child back then.

I smiled at the memory. Live had been much easier back then. Much easier...

But although it had been a long time since I'd been here, I could still remember what the city looked like. Of course, not everything would look like it had when I'd been here for the first time...

I sighed and looked up to the sky, thinking. Since I'd been here for the first time, many things have changed. Some things had been unexpected, some things not...

I watched the clouds, the heavy gray clouds up there at the sky, how they whirled around. As a raindrop landed on the tip of my nose, I smiled again.

Although I've often had a tough time in my life, I'd never lost my happiness and my courage to face life. Because you always have to make the best out of things. Always...

"Malik..." A voice suddenly said from behind me. It was Odion. I turned round and looked at him.

"What is it?", I asked him.

He hold a jacket in his hands. "Here, take it or else you'll get a cold", he said and handed me the jacket. I sighed, but put it on.

"You worry too much about me, Odion, you know that?", I asked him.

A smile appeared on his face, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Yes, I know that", he answered, though he surely thought something like: 'You can never worry too much.'

I turned my attention back to the city, that seemed to get bigger as we got closer to it. Odion positioned himself next to me.

"When will we arrive?", I asked him.

"Soon. It won't take more than two hours, I think", my brother replied. I nodded.

More and more raindrops fell on us, but we ignored them. We just stood there on the bow, looking at the city in silence.

"Odion", I finally broke the silence. "I know what you think... But I tell you: You don't have to worry. I don't want that, okay? It's making everything only worse." I looked up at him, up into his green eyes which were full of worry.

He hesitated before he said something. "I'll... try", he said.

I closed my eyes and nodded.

.............

An hour and a half later, we finally arrived in the harbor. Odion unloaded our luggage while I kept an eye out for my sister Ishizu, who wanted to pick us up. Just as Odion brought the last suitcase out of the ship, Ishizu arrived with her car. Before she could get the chance to jump out of the car and welcome us, I sat already inside on the passenger seat.

"Nice car, sis", I said, grinning.

She looked at me for a long moment, before she hugged and squeezed me.

"Oh, Malik! It's been a long time since I've seen you! Last time is five years ago!", she said.

I nodded. "Yeah. Father's funeral..."

A moment of silence passed.

"You're so...", she began, but didn't know what to say.

I smirked. "Good-looking? Attractive? Hot?", I said.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever..."

Then, Odion got in the car. My sister hugged him, too, what was fairly difficult as she sat on the driver's seat and he sat on the back seat. But somehow, they managed hugging each other anyway.

Ishizu started the motor and we drove in the direction of her house.

An awful silence filled the car, because neither of us knew what to say. It's true, it's been a long time since we'd seen each other the last time and that hadn't been under nice circumstances.

I decided to break the silence.

"Hey, sis, is there still this park where we took a walk when I visited you for the first time?", I asked.

"Sure", she answered. "Not much has changed since you've been here."

"Uhm... Can we take a walk there before we go to your house?", I asked. She looked at me and then at Odion.

"I... I don't know. I think after the long journey you should better rest, okay?", she said.

I rolled my eyes. "Come on. I'm not a child anymore. I decide when I want to rest and when I don't want to."

"But...", Ishizu said.

"Please. Ishizu... Just a short walk", I told her.

She sighed and gave up. "Okay. A short walk. But you know that we could do that later, too, right?"

"Of course", I grinned.

And so Ishizu drove in the direction of the park.

As we arrived there, I jumped out of the car and started to walk towards the gate that led into the park.

"Malik! Wait!", I heard Odion call.

"Nah... You can stay in the car if you want. I'll be okay on myself. Don't worry", I told him. "I won't take long. Just a short walk, okay?"

"Alright", Odion said and got back into the car.

"Good", I said to myself.

As the day was cloudy and rainy, there weren't much people in the park. I knew that it rained here almost everyday at that time of the year. But that didn't bother me, because I liked the rain, as it barely rained in Egypt.

And while I walked, I almost felt as if I was ten years younger, I felt like the child I've once been again. I could remember the days I'd spent here in the park when we'd visited Ishizu for the first time. Odion and I had played together and had observed the people that were in the park, too. We'd lay on the grass and had watched the clouds, imagining that they have been animals. Stuff like that. However, that was long ago.

But the park looked still like it had ten years ago. The trees were just bigger now.

I walked around and the time passed. As I looked at my watch, I realized that my 'short walk' lasted already half an hour. Certainly, Ishizu and Odion were already worried.

I sighed and began to jog back, in the direction of where my siblings waited in the car. I hurried and didn't look where I walked. Suddenly, as I was near the gate I'd come into the park earlier, I bumped against something, but I didn't stop jogging. I only looked back and saw a white haired figure and a blonde boy. A brown liquid dripped to the ground.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!", the blonde guy shouted.

"Just look at me! Just look at me!", the whitette said.

I bit on my lower lip and looked back and forth between the gate of the park and the white haired guy, who I had caused to pour his coffee or espresso or whatever over himself.

I sighed and ran to the gate and then to the car of my sister.

"Ah! Malik! You're back! Thank Ra! I already thought something has happened to you and-", Ishizu said as soon as I opened the door, but I interrupted her.

"Quick, sis, give me a tissue or something!", I ordered.

A confused expression spread on her and Odion's faces. "What? Why do you need a-", Ishizu asked.

"Doesn't matter! Just give me one!", I told her.

"Okay, okay", she said and gave some tissues to me.

"Where are you going? Malik!", Odion called after me.

"I'll be right back!", I told him and ran back to where the white haired guy had stood. Hopefully, he would still be there, so that I could apologize for pushing him.

Out of breath, I reached the place where he'd stood and still stood. Slowly, I approached the two boys.

"...What will happen?", the white haired boy asked the blonde. They seemed to have forgotten the coffee-incident. I stopped walking towards them and listened instead.

"You will get the boy you want, you will marry him, have children and then... He will leave you and go away. What will you do then? Huh?"

I furrowed my brow. I knew it wasn't right to eavesdrop on people, but nevertheless I couldn't help but wonder what the cause was that the white haired boy thought something like that.

"I will marry again. What else?", the blonde answered and I couldn't help but smile.

The white haired boy slapped his forehead, mumbled something and walked off. The blonde boy just shrugged and walked into another direction.

I looked after the white haired boy. My heart beat in a weird way, like... I didn't know. As if it would jump out of my chest or as if thousands of butterflies would fly around it.

Even as the white haired boy was already out of sight, I still looked in the direction where he had disappeared, while I had this strange feeling in my chest... A very strange feeling.

I sighed and went back to the car of my sister.

As I got in, Odion and Ishizu looked at me, expecting an explanation.

"Here", I said and gave her the tissues back. "I didn't need them..."

Ishizu opened her mouth to say something, but she decided against it and instead, she drove off. She knew that it was sometimes better to not bother me with questions and conservations.

The whole way to her house, I thought about the white haired boy and how my heart beat had sped up as I saw him. For a moment, a certain word crossed my mind.

Love...

But as soon as I'd thought it, I shook my head. How could I talk about love? First of all, I hadn't even seen the boy's face. And secondly, I didn't know him and probably I would never see him again.

I rolled my eyes because I'd thought such silly things. I shouldn't think something like that. It... I just shouldn't. I had my reasons...

A little later, we arrived at Ishizu's house. It was a nice house, with a small garden in front of it and a little balcony.

Ishizu led us into the house and showed me my room. Not the biggest one, but enough space for me and my things. And the balcony belonged to my room, what was a great bonus.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent with unpacking my suitcases and putting the things in their places. Fortunately, Ishizu and Odion hadn't shown up since we'd arrived here, because I just needed some time for myself with nobody asking me if I was alright and stuff.

It was already late when I'd finally finished. I decided to go on the balcony before I would look what Ishizu and Odion did, so I went through the balcony door and out into the approaching night.

It wasn't cold outside and you could smell rain that had fallen earlier that day. I ran with my hand through my hair, inhaling deeply.

I looked to the house that was next to our house and I could look directly into a room.

In the room, a man with white-blue hair, a boy with tri-colored spiky hair and a little girl with long white hair were sitting on a bed with clasped hands and closed eyes.

It looked like they were praying or something. But there was a fourth person. From where I stood, I could only see its legs, so I stepped sidewards. And I couldn't believe what I saw. What a coincidence! The fourth person in the room was...

"...the boy I'd accidentally pushed in the park", I mumbled to myself.

* * *

**Well, nothing too spectacular happened in this chapter, but I had to introduce Malik, or else this story can't go on. ^-^**

**The introductions of the persons are over now and the real story can finally begin! Yay!**

**And about the pairings, well... I won't tell that, because it shall be a surprise. There are several persons who could fall in love after all, but who will fall in love with whom you'll see some time.**

**Oh, is 'whitette' even a word? I think you know I meant Ryou with that word. If it isn't a word, well... then just ignore it or I don't know... Never mind!**

**But don't forget to leave me a review before you go, okay? Because: I love reviews! They make me happy. And: I love to hear what you think.**

**See you in the next chapter!**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	4. Chapter 4 Happiness a foreign word?

**Hello readers! This is chapter four (as if you didn't know that, hehe). Well, what shall I say? Enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 4 Happiness - a foreign word?**

**Ryou's P.O.V**

As I awoke the next day, the season had changed all of a sudden. Nobody knows how, but where yesterday had been gray gloomy clouds, was now clear blue sky. The rain had stopped and it seemed as if somebody had just moved the clouds and bad weather away.

It was warm and the sun smiled down at us, as bright as it hadn't shined for months.

I felt happy as I stood at the window of my room, just looking out at the street in front of the house where young and old people enjoyed the afternoon. For a moment I had a feeling, I hadn't had for a long time... I couldn't really describe it, but... it felt good. As if I didn't have problems, as if sadness and everything bad was gone all of a sudden.

But the feeling lasted only until I remembered that there were problems and that the sadness was still there. Sighing, I sat down on my bed and began to read in one of my MBA books.

**Malik's P.O.V**

The next morning was surprisingly sunny and warm. I walked out on the balcony in my pajamas and, blinking against the sunlight, I stretched myself. I looked to the window of the house next door, but at the moment, there seemed to be nobody in the room. Not the sad children, not the sad man, not the boy that made my heart beat faster.

Sighing, I went back inside and got dressed before I went downstairs into the kitchen where Ishizu and Odion were already sitting and having breakfast.

"Good morning", I said cheerfully, wondering what the day would be like.

"Good morning, Malik", Ishizu said, smiling. "Sit down and eat something."

"Sure", I told her and sat down.

Just as I started eating my bowl of cereals, Ishizu suddenly groaned.

"This cannot be true...", she mumbled and slowly, she walked to the window.

"What's wrong with her?", I whispered to Odion.

Odion chuckled. "She has a stalker", he answered lowly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Really?", I asked, grinning.

"Yeah. Kind of anyway", Odion replied.

"Who is it?", I questioned, now excited. My sister had a stalker? Certainly, the poor guy didn't know who he's stalking. If he would know what my sister was like, he would think again if he really wanted to stalk her.

Odion snickered and looked at Ishizu, who peeked out from behind the curtains. "It's the old man next door", Odion told me.

I blinked, realizing what he had said, and broke out into a laughter. "Ishizu... stalker... graybeard... hilarious...", I managed to say between my fits of laughter.

Ishizu turned round, an angry expression on her face. She narrowed her eyes, as I wiped away the tears I had in my eyes because of laughing so much.

"This isn't funny", she hissed. "It's really annoying."

Odion and I went to the window, too, hiding behind the curtains, so that Ishizu's stalker couldn't see us.

"So... it's him?", I asked.

Ishizu nodded and sighed. "Yes..."

At the window of the house next to us, stood an old man, a... cap or a bandana covering partially his gray hair, his blonde bangs hanging in his face. He looked kind of... weird for an old man.

The old man looked directly to our window where we hid behind the curtains. Who did stalk whom actually at the moment? I began to laugh.

"This is so funny...", I muttered.

Ishizu shot an angry look at me. "Stop laughing! And hide or else he will see us!", she whispered.

"How long does he stalk you now?", I asked her.

"Don't know... I think since I moved here, but I only noticed it years later. It's really annoying, I tell you!", Ishizu said. "Sometimes I ask myself if he hasn't anything better to do with the rest of his life..."

"Obviously, he hasn't, sis", I grinned.

We stood at the window for a little longer and watched the old man, looking at us, but not noticing us.

"I wonder when he'll go", Ishizu mumbled. An idea came to my mind. I smirked.

I grabbed Ishizu by her arm and pushed her lightly, so that the curtains no longer hid her.

"Malik, what...?", she asked, a bit panicked.

I snickered. "Hey, look! The old man waves!"

Ishizu groaned. Then, she put on a friendly smile and turned to the window. The old man waved even more and grinned as he saw that Ishizu looked at him.

"Thanks, Malik. Now I have to talk with him...", she mumbled and opened the window.

Odion and I giggled and walked away from the window, so that Ishizu could deal alone with her 'stalker'. Aren't I mean?

After I'd finished my breakfast, I went outside, as it was such a nice day. No clouds, just blue sky. On the street in front of our house there were kids playing. Some little girls skip roped, a few boys played tag and a couple of teens played basketball. Everybody seemed to enjoy the sunny day.

I looked to the house next to ours, where Ishizu's stalker and the white haired boy from the park lived in. In front of the house on the stair of the porch sat the little white haired girl and the tri-color haired boy I'd seen yesterday through the window. The girl played with a doll, and the boy shouted orders to the teens playing basketball, who were much older than him.

"Come on, he's open!... He's open!", he shouted. "Come on!" As the ball missed the hoop, he groaned.

"What are you doing, guys?", he scolded.

"Want to come and teach me, you shit?", one of the basketball players yelled at him.

The tri-color haired boy's face fell. His eyes saddened and he looked down at his legs. Only now, I saw that crutches lay next to him.

"If I could play, I surely would come and teach you...", he mumbled, barely audible.

"Go and play card games like your crazy grandpa!", the teens shouted at him.

I felt so sorry for the little boy. Slowly, I walked towards him and the girl, who surely was his sister, though she didn't look like him at all.

I sat down between them, receiving surprised looks from both kids.

"Hello boy. Hello girl. Hello doll", I said, smiling.

The boy furrowed his brow suspicious. "Who are you?", he asked and skidded away from me on his bottom. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself", I said and cleared my throat. "I'm Malik. Hello."

I reached my hand out. The boy just stared at it, not intending to shake it, so I reached it out to the girl. She looked at me with big brown eyes and gulped, squeezing her doll tightly.

"Daddy has said not to talk to... str... str... stranglers!", she said quickly.

I furrowed my brow? What?

The tri-color haired boy shook his head, sighing. "Not stranglers, silly. Strangers", he corrected her.

"But that's what I said!", she pouted cutely.

"Ah, now I understand", I told them. "But I am neither a strangler nor a stranger. I live in the house next door. There", I said and pointed to the house I now lived in.

"Wrong", the boy said. "That annoying Ishtar woman lives there."

"I know", I laughed. "She's my sister."

The boy looked at me wide-eyed and covered his mouth with his hand.

"You made a boo-boo", the girl said teasingly.

"Yes, he made a boo-boo", I snickered. "But it's okay. I know exactly how annoying she is. And do you know what I've heard?", I asked them.

The girl looked at me, a glint in her eyes and her white mane surrounding her like a halo. "No. Tell us, tell us!", she demanded excited.

"Well, I've heard that there's an old coot who always flirts with her and watches her", I said, knowing exactly who it was I was talking about.

The boy tapped me lightly on my shoulder.

"That's our jii-chan", he informed me, grinning broadly.

"Oops!", I said and slapped my forehead playfully. "I made a-"

"Boo-boo", the girl finished my sentence.

"I'm sorry", I said. "By the way, what's your jii-chan's name?", I asked them.

"Jii-chan!", they answered in unison.

"What a nice name", I said.

These kids were really adorable. But still... I had a feeling that they weren't that happy. Their eyes had a somehow sad expression in them and while all the other kids played together, they sat alone here. And last night, when they were praying, they looked even more sad as now. I didn't know what their reasons for praying have been or were. Maybe the boys handicap, or something else. Whatever it was that made them all so sad, so unhappy... I wished I could help them. Somehow...

I was brought out of my thoughts by an awful noise.

"Oh, Ra, Osiris and all of you other almighty gods up there, listen to our pleading, so that we can trust...", someone... sang, if you could describe that noise as singing, because it sounded more like a... dying elephant.

"Oh, wow! What's this?", I asked and covered my ears with my hands. "Beggars in Domino City?"

"... our faith to the heart of the cards. Give us the strength for the coming games..."

"That singsong is not coming from beggars", the tri-color haired boy said and covered his ears, too. "It's coming from our jii-chan! He does that every day with his friends. He pleads some Egyptian gods and hopes to get better at the game he always plays, because it is from Egypt."

"Oh, god. I'm so sorry for you", I told them. "I'll do something about it."

"Best of luck", the boy told me as I stood up and walked on the street, so that I could see the window where the noise was coming from.

First that old man annoys my sister and now he also annoys his grandchildren. Poor kids...

"Hey! Jii-chan!", I shouted. "Jii-chan!"

The singing continued.

"Jii-chan!!!"

By now, the little white haired girl and her brother with his crutches stood besides me, looking up at the window, too. The kids on the street had stopped playing and looked also up there.

"Oi! Jii-chan!", I shouted again. "Hey, Brad Pitt!" Maybe he would listen to that.

And indeed, he did. The old man finally appeared at the window.

"Huh?", he said.

"Here! Here!", I called.

"What's the matter?", he asked. "Me and my friends are praying to the gods! So stop disturbing us!"

"You were not praying to the gods! You were torturing them!", I told him. The boy and the girl chuckled. I kept a straight face. This was a serious matter! I didn't want to get a hearing damage because of them.

"Now", I began, "Ra cannot come here himself, so on his behalf I beg you: Please, please, don't sing!" I made a pleading gesture.

"What?", the old man asked, furrowing his brow.

"What do you mean 'what'?", I asked. Then, I turned round and pointed at one of the basketball players, who stood behind me. "Just look at them... These young children who are playing here. Your singing will have such a bad effect on them! They will lose faith in music!"

"And who are you to say all these things to us?", one of the old man's friends questioned.

I grinned. "I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Malik Ishtar, your new neighbor... And Ishizu's brother." I twinkled with one eye.

"Ishizu's brother?", the old man asked, his eyes having such a glinting in them at the mere thought of my sister that I could see it up to where I stood.

Suddenly, my sister came up to me. Of course, now that the old man had sung, she hadn't talked with him anymore. Good for her, bad for everyone else who had to suffer under the horrible singing.

"Malik! What are you doing?", she hissed.

"Nothing", I said innocently. "I'm only introducing myself to the neighborhood", I grinned.

She shook her head and turned to the old man at the window. "Solomon.. Don't mind him. My brother is a bit mischievous..."

I? Mischievous?! Tsk...

I smirked. "Hmm... Ishizu and Solomon's love story", I teased, "doesn't care about the age difference and blooms in glory..."

My sister looked wide-eyed at me, gaping and red like a tomato. I could swear I heard her growl a bit.

I chuckled and hid behind my sister.

"Ishizu! Tell your brother that he-", the old man began, but was interrupted by someone.

"What's happening here? What's this noise so early in the morning?"

I stepped aside from behind Ishizu and looked up to the window that was next to the window where the old man and his friends stood. There, I saw _him_. The boy from the park.

I gasped and looked at him.

His long white hair framed his face, which I could only now see exactly. His deep chocolate brown eyes, half hidden under his bangs, were a contrast to his shimmering white hair and his beautiful pale skin. He... looked like an angel. But he, too, had this sad expression in his eyes. He would look so much more beautiful if he would be happy, if his slightly angry expression would have been changed with a cheerful one.

As he noticed me staring at him, the pale boy blushed slightly, furrowed his brow and narrowed his eyes.

I smiled, feeling my heart pounding against my chest at the sight of him.

He nodded at me, like if he wanted to say 'Why do you look at me like that?' and I nodded back, like if I wanted to say 'Just so.' or 'Because you're the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life.'

I smiled again and he turned round and went away from the window.

I saw a man with blue-white hair done in a ponytail, who was standing in front of the garden gate of the house the white haired boy and the old man lived in. I lifted the white haired girl up so that I could carry her, and then I walked towards the man, slowly so that the boy with tri-colored hair and crutches could follow us.

"Hey, by the way, what's your name, sweet heart?", I asked the little girl.

She giggled. "Amane."

"Aw, that's a beautiful name", I told her and then I turned to the boy. "And your name is?"

"Yugi", he answered. I nodded.

"And who was the one at the window?", I asked them.

"Jii-chan", they both replied.

"No, I mean the boy at the other window", I told them.

"Oh, that was our brother, Ryou", Yugi told me.

"Ryou? Oh, I see", I said.

We arrived at the blue-white-haired man. He smiled.

"Thanks for stopping him", he told me. "Nobody has ever stopped him from... uh... his howling."

I laughed. "So, I am the hero now, huh?"

"Kind of", the man smiled.

"I'm the new neighbor, Malik Ishtar", I told him. The man laughed.

"I know. I think everybody heard it and is happy that you've rescued us from suffering.", he said.

I saw the front door of the house open, and Ryou came out. I put on my friendliest smile, but he didn't smile back, he kept a straight face and eyed me.

"Hey, I didn't know Ishizu had a brother", the man said and looked at Ryou, who merely shrugged.

"Well, she has two brothers", I told the man.

"Really?", he asked. "I didn't know that..."

"And I didn't know that my sister had such beautiful neighbors", I said and twinkled at Ryou, who looked at me, shocked.

"What?!", he asked. I grinned.

"I was talking about little Amane here", I said and put Amane down. "So, let me see... You are Mr. Bakura... This is Yugi, the basketball champ. This is my sweet heart Amane and you are?", I asked and looked at the white haired boy.

"Not interested", he answered.

"That's shown on your face", I told him. "Anyway. It's nice to meet the rest of you", I said and looked at Yugi, Amane and their father.

"Nice to meet you, too", their father said.

"Thank you", I replied.

"So... why did you move to your sister?", Mr. Bakura asked me. "Certainly because of important business."

"No, not at all", I said, grinning. "I'm just here to get married."

"Really?", he said and looked for a brief moment to the white haired boy.

"Yes", I said. "Mr. Bakura. I want to marry your white-haired angel."

"What?!", Ryou shouted.

I rolled my eyes. "Do you mind? I'm talking to Amane!", I told him, grinning. I knew he would think I would address him. "Amane, sweet heart, do you want to marry me?", I asked and crouched down in front of the girl.

Amane shook her head, smiling cutely, her white mane waving with the shook of her head.

"Please, please", I said.

"No. No", she answered.

"Please, no, please, no", Ryou mimicked me and Amane and rolled his eyes.

"Ryou!", Mr. Bakura scolded.

"Doesn't matter", I told him. "Just one thing... Is he in a bad mood or was he born this way?"

"He has always been like this", Amane said, receiving an angry glare from both Ryou and their father.

"Don't say something like that", Mr. Bakura told her. "Please don't mind her", he said.

"No... I don't. This is the age he has, nothing more", I said. "Anyway, lovely to meet you all", I told them, while Mr. Bakura and Ryou exchanged glances. "I will see you guys at about seven or eight pm", I added and then, I turned to go.

"Seven or eight?", Mr. Bakura asked.

"For dinner", I replied. "At your place. I'm your new neighbor. Obviously, you will invite me to show your hospitality... won't you?"

Mr. Bakura looked... stunned for a moment.

"Okay?", I asked.

Mr. Bakura nodded.

"Okay", I said again. "But... actually at seven, not at eight. I'm busy."

Ryou wanted to say something to his father, but I interrupted him.

"Oh, and after that, he will be angry with you for inviting me to dinner", I told Mr. Bakura. "But don't worry. He'll soon have forgotten that."

"He won't say any such thing", Mr. Bakura told me. I nodded and then I went back to my own house, well, Ishizu's house actually.

She stood in the doorframe of the front door, tapping her foot.

I looked at her.

"Hi", I said. She shook her head.

"Malik..."

"What?", I asked.

* * *

**Malik, Malik. *shakes head* Inviting yourself for dinner...**

**Well, I hope this chapter wasn't too boring, but I needed to write this. I wanted to show you how Malik is in this story. He's a nice guy, who likes to make funny things and stuff like that. I think you know what I mean. **

**Was this chapter at least a bit funny? I tried... **

**You should enjoy the 'funny' parts of the story, because in later chapters, it'll be sad. **

**Okay, I don't have to say anything more...**

**Oh, just one thing: Reviews are appreciated. And I promise that I will answer to every single one. I would be really happy, because I like to hear what you think.**

**I'll update as soon as I can (but it can take a while). ^-^**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	5. Chapter 5 Dinner at eight

**Hey, I'm back with chapter 5. ^-^ **

**But I'm a little disappointed and sad that nobody reviewed to the last chapter. T_T I know that it's not one of my best stories, but hey, that's no reason to not leave me a review. Tell me what I could do to make the story better.  
****Well, getting no review is no reason for me to not continue this story, because at least I know that people read it. :)  
****Okay, enough with the reviewing-speech.**

**I hope you like the chapter! ^-^ It's a little longer than usually (the longest one I've ever written!), hope you don't mind. ;)**

**Oh, just one thing before you start: I had to give Ryou's father a name, because I couldn't always call him Mr. Bakura. So I simply gave him the first name: Takumi. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 5 Dinner at eight**

**Ryou's P.O.V**

"Why on earth did you have to invite him for dinner?", I asked my father, angry. We were standing in the living room.

"Yes, why did you have to do this?!", grandpa shouted.

"Stop it!", father yelled. "You were there, too! I did not invite him! He invited himself!"

My father stormed into the kitchen and I followed him.

"I can't believe this! Why couldn't you just have said no or something?!", I shouted. "This guy is... argh!" I really didn't like him. He was so... happy. And he thought that he was funny. Tsk. Nobody could be that happy. Life wasn't happy.

Sighing, my father sat down at the table.

As I didn't want to spend the evening with that Ishtar guy, I picked up the phone.

"Dad, I invite Joey and Bakura for dinner", I told him. In this moment, the door bell rang. I sighed, went to the front door and opened it. It was Joey. Could he hear what I think or what? Hmm..

"Hey Joey, it's a good thing that you're here, 'cause", I began, but he interrupted me.

"Hi Ryou. I just wanted ta ask ya something", Joey said. "How do I look?"

"Uh... Great", I answered. "Now, back to what I wanted to say. You're invited to have dinner with us tonight."

"Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't have time", he said.

"What?" Normally, Joey always had time.

"Yeah... I have a date", he said proudly, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"What? With whom?", I asked surprised. Joey had never had a date for a long time now.

"Dunno", he replied.

"Huh?", now I was confused. Let me get this straight: Joey had a date. Aaaand... he didn't even know who he dated? Seriously, what the-?

"Blind date", he explained.

"Oh", I said. "Okay." That explained a lot.

"Blind date?", grandpa, who stood besides us all of a sudden, asked. "So, you date a blind boy?"

Joey groaned. "Nah. Blind date means a date with a boy who has never seen me."

"And when he sees you he'll be blinded with shock", grandpa said and I couldn't hide a small smile.

"Pff...", Joey ignored grandpa's comment. "Anyway Ryou, I can't come tonight. Bye."

And then, he was gone.

I shook my head and began to dial Bakura's number.

"Maybe at least Bakura has time", I mumbled. It rang four times before Bakura answered the phone.

"Hey, Ryou", he said.

"Hi Bakura."

"What's up?"

"What are you doing?", I asked him.

"Uh.. Nothing. I'm with Duke", he answered.

"Duke?"

"Yeah. You remember Duke. The new boy in our evening class", he explained.

"Ah, Duke..." Now I remembered.

"Yes, he lives in Domino with two other boys", Bakura explained.

"Really? Two other boys?" I raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you have a bonus."

"Well-" He was interrupted by the cry of a baby.

"Bakura?", I asked. No answer, just baby-crying.

"Bakura?!", I shouted. "BAKURA!"

"Yes?", he answered.

"What's going on?", I asked.

"Uh, well... The two boys are here, too...", he said. "They're a little loud, sometimes..."

"Oh, whatever. Can you please come for dinner tonight?", I asked him.

"What? Dinner", he said.

"Yeah. Dad invited some stupid neighbors for dinner, so you can also come", I told him.

"What time?", he questioned.

"Eight o' clock", I answered and then, I gave him my address. He'd never been at my place before. I hoped, that he would find it...

...................

Angry, I brought the things I'd bought in the supermarket home. Dad had send me to buy food, so that he could cook something for dinner.

"Stupid neighbors... What a nerve...", I muttered as I reached the front door of our house.

Just as I tried to get the key out of my jacket pocket (what was really hard as I had my hands full of shopping bags), the front door was opened.

"Finally!"

Oh no! Not him.

I looked up. In front of me stood Malik. I narrowed my eyes.

"What are _you_ doing here?", I asked. "Didn't you say you'd come at eight? I thought you're busy before then?"

Malik shook his head. "I'm busy with preparing dinner, silly", he told me.

"But dad prepares dinner!", I said.

"And I help him with that", Malik answered, smiling.

"Hmm. Whatever", I mumbled.

"Just one question", Malik said. "Where have you been? You took so much time to buy those things..."

"Go and asked the supermarket", I told him and went passed him into the hallway.

"Takumi! Ryou's home!", Malik shouted and took the small packet of salt out of one of the shopping bags I carried.

"Let me help", he said. "And close the door, darling." Then, he disappeared in the kitchen.

I decided to ignore the 'darling' comment.

"Takumi?", I said. Now after he just got to know him, he already addresses my father by his first name!

Sighing, I followed him into the kitchen and put the bags on the table.

In front of the stove, there stood my father. Next to him sat Amane on the counter. Malik went to them.

"Oh, hey, not so much", he said to my father, who just added something to whatever it was he was cooking. "I said I'd do it, Takumi", he told him.

"Thank you, Malik-", my father said.

"What's the need?", Malik interrupted him. "What have I done? I'm just impressing my father-in-law. What do you say, Amane?", he said and stroke over Amane's cheek. The little girl giggled. Apparently, she liked it when Malik talked about marrying her and stuff. Pfft. She probably thought that was funny. She certainly thought _he_ was funny. Ha, ha. I laugh myself to death. But she was only a little girl. She found everything funny.

But I couldn't believe that father let this happen! I'd been sure that, after Malik invited himself for dinner, he didn't like him anymore. However, as I walked to them, my father and Malik laughed together and talked.

//What the hell?//, I thought and looked at my father.

I had to admit that he seemed kind of happy. I hadn't seen him like this for a long time and I know I should be glad, but I wasn't. Not when Malik was the reason to make him happy.

"Ah, Ryou", my father said as he noticed me.

I gave him an Are-you-out-of-your-mind?-What's-going-on?-look, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you", Malik said all of a sudden and faced me. "Bakura called. He said he would probably be fifteen or twenty minutes late. Sweet boy", he added. "Your boyfriend?"

"Friend!", I corrected. "Dad! I need to speak to you privately!"

Malik groaned. "Amane, go out!" Then, he went to where my father and I stood. "Now, what is it?", he whispered and put an arm around my shoulder and the other arm around my father's shoulder.

"Dad!", I shouted. I shook off Malik's arm, grabbed my father by the sleeve and pulled him out of the kitchen.

"What are you doing Ryou?", my father asked.

I pulled him into the living room.

"This Malik-", I began.

"Malik's brother and sister!", my father interrupted me and pointed to the two people who were sitting on the couch.

"Oh, hello Mister Ishtar. Hello Ishizu", I said, glad that my father had prevented me from saying something bad about Malik in front of them, and I noticed that Ishizu looked sort of... frightened? And nervous.

"Is Solomon nearby?", she asked and looked around. "I can't see him anywhere..." Was that relief in her voice as she spoke?

"Yes, sometimes we are lucky...", my father answered.

I faked a laugh. "So funny", I said and pulled my father out of the living room again and into the hallway.

"Is this our house or theirs?", I asked him.

"Mine", he answered.

"Then why do you allow that all this is happening?", I said.

We were interrupted by Yugi.

"Hey, dad, Ryou, look! I got a new T-shirt", Yugi said. I sighed.

"Wow", I said. "And who gave it to you?", I asked, though I had an idea who had done that.

"Malik", he replied happily. There! I knew it.

Grrr... Enough... I had to do something. This guy was about to twist everybody around his finger. I couldn't let that happen...

"Mr. Ishtar!", I said as I walked to him. I would show him that he couldn't just come here and... confuse everyone's life.

"Yeah, darling?", he said and stirred the sauce that was in the bowl he held.

"Don't call me darling!", I told him.

"Then call me Malik", he said.

"Malik."

"Ryou say 'aah'", he told me. I furrowed my brow.

"Aah", I said and when I opened my mouth, he shoved a spoon with sauce into my mouth.

"Is something less?", Malik asked.

"Salt", I answered after I'd swallowed the sauce.

Then, he went away from me and towards the cupboard. He tried to distract me, but that wouldn't work! I followed him.

"Why are you following me?!", he asked me and turned round all of a sudden. "Don't you have anything to do?" He turned his head to the cupboard again and looked at the documents which lay there. "The game shop accounts are so bad... Why?"

"How dare you?!", I asked him and took the documents away from him. "That's my private affair!"

"Let me look at it", he said and took the other end of the documents in an attempt to take them away from me.

In this moment, his brother and sister came into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry", his brother apologized. "My brother is really mad. I'm really sorry."

"It's okay", I said and managed to take the documents to bring them somewhere else where this stupid guy couldn't find them. After I'd laid them into a drawer where Malik would hopefully not rummage in, I sat down at the table.

"Why do you do this? When will you change your childhood habits?", Malik's brother asked him.

"One slap in the childhood would have helped", grandpa said as he went into the kitchen.

"Oh no", Ishizu whispered as grandpa approached.

"Ah! Hello Ishizu!", grandpa said. "You look fabulous! This pink dress really suits you."

"Ahaha. Thank you very much", Ishizu said, forcing herself to smile. Her discomfort was audible. "This blue shirt is really nice, too."

"Ah... Mr. Blue, Miss Pink", Malik said as he went to grandpa and Ishizu. "Dinner's ready."

"I see that", grandpa said. "Japanese Food!", he exclaimed as he sat down. "I'm sure Takumi hasn't made it."

"Malik helped me a lot", my father told him and put down the bowl he held in his hands.

I sighed and hoped that they would at least don't argue this night, like always.

**Author P.O.V**

It was already dark outside. The street lamps shed only week light on the quiet street, no car far and wide, which would disturb the quietness of this peaceful night. The lights in the houses with the numbers twenty and twenty two of this street were on.

Suddenly, two cars - taxis - drove around the corners. One car came from the right side, the other car came from the left side. The lights of the cars lit up the gloomy street, making the trees cast shadows.

In front of said houses, both cars came to a halt. Out of each car, a man got out. One man wore tight black clothes, the other one wore a white suit.

"Argh... I can't read my own handwriting", the man in the black clothes said, his long white hair a contrast with his shirt and jeans. He held the small Post-it note in his hands where he'd written Ryou's address down, but he couldn't make out the house number he'd written down. "Damn it", Bakura swore.

"Oh no... The writing is blurred...", the man in white mumbled, his cold blue eyes looking down at the piece of paper where the address he had to go to was written.

The taxis left and Bakura noticed the other man's presence only now. Maybe he knew where the Bakuras lived.

"Hey, you there! Snowman!", Bakura said to the man.

The man in white looked at him, his blue eyes piercing. "Are you talking to me?", he asked and narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah... Uhm. Do you know by any chance where the Bakuras live?", Bakura asked.

"No. I'm not from here", the man answered and continued trying to remember the house number of the house he was supposed to go to. //Twenty... or was it twenty one? Or twenty two?//, he thought.

Bakura sighed and tried to make out what he'd written. And he failed. //Then I have to guess//, he thought. //Uhm... I take... number... twenty two.//

Meanwhile, the other man had chosen the house he thought he was supposed to go to, too. //Twenty...//

And so, the two man went to the houses, hoping that they'd chosen the right one.

**Ryou's P.O.V**

Everybody sat down at the table after my father and I had put the food on it.

"Oh, my darling son", grandpa said to Yugi, who sat next to him. "You have to eat all the Japanese food that's cooked today, because you won't get something like this again soon, that's for sure. Tomorrow we have to eat that silly hamburgers and other stuff again..."

I sighed. Again, grandpa started to pick on my father as he didn't cook Japanese food. If grandpa loved it so much, the Japanese food, why didn't he cook it?

"Here my son, have rice", grandpa said and piled food onto Yugi's plate.

"Jii-chan! I can do this myself!", Yugi protested.

I looked at Amane, who had played happily with Malik a minute ago. But now she had again a sad expression on her face, like always, when grandpa gave his full attention towards Yugi. Like always.

To my surprise, I wasn't the only one who noticed her sad look.

Malik followed her gaze and I think he understood why she was sad as he saw grandpa only caring for Yugi. But why did Malik of all people have to notice that? I sighed...

Suddenly, the door bell rang.

I jumped up. "Oh, that's Bakura! I'll answer the door", I said, but grandpa stopped me.

"I'll open the door! You sit down again", and then he was already at the door.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

Little later, grandpa came back with... what?

"What?!", I exclaimed and jumped up. This man was definitely not Bakura. This man had short brown hair and blue eyes and he was... tall. And he wore a white suit.

"What's the matter?", grandpa asked. "Our guest is our god, so now sit down", he ordered and the man who wasn't Bakura sat down.

Malik shook his head. "You naughty", he scolded me. "You never told us that Bakura is so handsome."

"Who did you call Bakura?", the man asked. "My name's Seto, Kaiba Seto."

"But-", I wanted to say something, because apparently, I was the only one who knew that this guy wasn't the one I invited. Didn't the others get that? Hello? Am I the only normal person here?... Probably.

Grandpa's jaw dropped. "You mean... _You_are Kaiba, _the_Kaiba?!", he exclaimed.

"The one and only", Kaiba said.

"Holy Ra! Can I have an autograph?", grandpa asked. We all looked at him, confused.

"What?", grandpa asked as he noticed our staring. Then his eyes widened. "Don't you know who that is?!"

We all shook our heads. "Care to enlighten us?", Malik said.

"This is Kaiba Seto! The CEO of Kaiba Corp. The official Duel Monsters champion! He's a genius!", grandpa explained and Kaiba only smiled smugly. I should have known that he has something to do with this card game grandpa always played. I really should have known...

"Uhm... wow", my father said, not really excited.

"Yeah... wow", I mumbled.

"So... where do you live?", my father asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I-", Kaiba began, but grandpa interrupted him.

"He lives in Domino City, too. In this big mansion in the affluent suburb", he said.

"Oh", my father said. "And... who lives there with you?"

"My-", Kaiba began and was again interrupted by grandpa.

"Oh, he lives there only with his little brother", grandpa explained.

And like that it went on...

**Author's P.O.V**

**~~Meanwhile at the house with the number 22~~**

//I hope I've chosen the right house//, Bakura thought as he rang the door bell. It was too dark outside to read the name tag at the door.

The door opened, and a reddish haired teenager stood in front of him. She looked nothing like Ryou, but Ryou had once told Bakura that his sister was adopted, though Bakura had thought that she was a little younger.

"Hello, uhm... I was invited to come here", Bakura told her.

She smiled and gestured him to come in. "Yeah, my brother already awaits you. Come in", she said. "Follow me."

Bakura followed her the hallway along to a door. "He's in there", she told him and pointed at the door.

Bakura nodded and went in. The room was dark. Bakura felt slightly uncomfortable as he went into the darkness. Wasn't he invited for dinner? Or had he simply misunderstood everything?

As he couldn't see a thing in the room, he stopped walking farther in.

"Hello?", he said. "Ryou?"

Suddenly, a lamp on a bedside table went on, bathing the room in dim light.

Bakura raised an eyebrow. What was going on? This was obviously a bedroom, not a dining room.

//Maybe... This is the wrong house...//, he thought and walked towards the bed where he sat down, waiting for what would happen next.

And just as he sat down, he suddenly felt two arms coming from behind, embracing him at his waist, pulling him backwards.

"Aaaahh!!!", Bakura shouted, startled. "What the f-"

"Ssh! Don't be like dat, dragon", the person who embraced him said softly. Bakura hadn't heard this voice ever before.

"Dragon?", Bakura repeated.

"Yeah... I told ya I have a surprise when ya come", the voice said.

"Uh... you did?", Bakura asked.

"Of course!", the voice said. "And tonight, I'll be ya puppy."

Bakura's eyes widened. He felt like paralyzed as he sat there on the bed, this strange person behind him. He gulped as a hand was shoved under his shirt all of a sudden. This. Was. Not. Good.

As the hand went lower, he snapped out of his mere sitting and jumped up from the bed.

"Ah! What's all that supposed to mean?!", Bakura exclaimed, now facing his... attacker for the first time.

There on the bed, sat a blonde haired man, his brown eyes focused on Bakura. He looked slightly confused.

"This... is our blind date", the boy explained.

Bakura furrowed his brow. "Blind date?", he asked. "No, no, no! I'm not your blind date, I've just gone to the wrong house."

"What?", the blond man said. "No! Don't leave! Please!" He also jumped up from the bed and grabbed Bakura by his arm. "Please! Don't leave!"

//Geez, what have I gotten myself into?//, Bakura thought and tried to get rid of the man.

"Let me go!", Bakura said and ran towards the door. "Help!"

Quickly, he opened the door and ran into the hallway where the reddish haired girl stood, a confused and worried look on her face.

"Joey?", she asked. "Is everything alright?"

"Please! Please stay!", the blonde man, Joey, whined.

"Let go off me!", Bakura said. "You must mistaken me for someone else!"

Joey eased his grip at Bakura's arm. A stupid expression spread out on his face. "Now dat ya say it... ya don't have brown hair and blue eyes..."

"Finally you got what I meant", Bakura said.

"But hey, why don't ya stay a little longer nevertheless?", Joey asked and tightened his grip at Bakura's shoulder again.

"Uh... I have to go now!", Bakura said and managed to get free from the blonde's grip. As fast as he could, he stormed out of the house.

"Wait! Please!", Joey called after him, but Bakura didn't stop running.

**Ryou's P.O.V**

I looked at the clock. It was nine pm. Grandpa had been talking for about half an hour now about the great Seto Kaiba... and it was really annoying. Especially annoying was the fact, that Malik put his two cents into the conversation, too and tried again to twist everyone around his finger with his funniness.

Suddenly, the cellphone of Kaiba rang. He answered it.

"Hello?", he said. "Oh, yeah. I'll be there in a minute. Okay." Then he stood up. "I'm really sorry, but unfortunately, my employees can't do anything without me. Nice talking to you, though I have no idea who you are and where Joey is, but that doesn't matter now. I have a corporation to run. Bye", he said and went towards the door.

"Stop! Don't go now!", grandpa said. He jumped up from his chair and took hold of Kaiba's sleeve.

"I'm sorry, but I have to", Kaiba said and got rid of grandpa's grip.

At full pace, he went to the front door and stormed out of the house. The others and I followed him.

As I stood outside, I saw Bakura running out from the house next door. I furrowed my brow. What did he want at Joey's?

Bakura ran out on the sidewalk and ran into Kaiba, who waited for somebody to pick him up or something.

"You!", Kaiba said.

"Are you alright?", Bakura asked him.

"Nah, I'm getting followed by an old man!", Kaiba told him.

"And those guys are lunatics!", Bakura exclaimed and pointed at Joey, who stood at the front door of his house.

At this moment, a limousine came and stopped in front of the two.

"Hey, can I come with you? I have to get away from here!", Bakura said.

"Sure", Kaiba told him and got in the car.

"Bakura!", I shouted.

"Bye, Ryou! I'll call you tomorrow!", he said and disappeared in the car, too. Then, it drove off.

I stared gaping after where it had vanished. This hadn't happened.

Next to me, Malik broke out into laughter. "Haha... They... confused... houses... haha..."

"You are laughing?", I asked him, angry. "I don't believe this."

"Normal people find such situations funny", he told me.

"Really? Are you trying to tell me that I'm not normal?", I questioned.

He broke out into another laughter. "If... haha... If you are normal... then I'm the pharaoh... haha."

"Well, as far as I can see, _you_ are not normal", I said to him. "Since morning, you have been behaving like you have known us for years!"

"Not years, darling. For aeons!", he said. "In fact, I feel our bond is from several past lifetimes." He put an arm around my shoulder. I shook it off.

"Listen. You are our neighbor, so please behave like one!", I told him.

"Okay", he said and pressed on my nose. "Ding dong. Open the door... May I please borrow half a cup of milk?", he asked.

"What? What are you doing?", I demanded.

"Didn't you just say I should behave like a neighbor?", he said. "So may I have half a cup of milk?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hahaha. So funny", I said. "See. Please take this happy-go-lucky nature and knock on someone else's door. And we are genuinely not interested. And I-"

"Ssh", he interrupted me, his face now serious.

"What?", I said.

"What's your problem?", he asked, looking me straight into the eyes.

"Problem?", I questioned.

"Yes. Why do you feel that the entire weight of the world is on your delicate shoulders?", he asked me. "Who are you?"

"..." I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out of it.

"Ssh. Don't", he said to me. "What's the point of praying to God, when you don't know how to value the life he has given?"

"What do you know about my life anyway?", I snapped.

"Not much, but enough to say that in your eyes perhaps you don't have much", he told me. "But look at your life through someone else's eyes and you'll know you have a lot."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Now I have to hear a lecture." I turned round to go inside, but Malik grabbed my wrist.

"Listen. Live. Be happy. Smile. Who knows? Tomorrow may not be", he said. I rolled my eyes again. He made a sobbed playfully. "Oh, what a thought. Tomorrow may not be... Oh, it's too good."

I just looked at him.

"Anyway, I will teach you to smile. It's a simple three parts process", he told me. "One, two, three", he counted and then he smiled. "Hee."

How stupid!

"Come on, try!", he said to me. "One, two, three, hee. Try!"

He touched my face with his index fingers and pulled my lips into a smile. I slapped his hands away. "Don't touch me!", I told him.

He groaned. "Oh, Ra! The poor things has forgotten how to smile! But don't worry. Just keep practicing and it will come back. Okay?"

"You, you, you!", I said and poked him with my finger in the chest. "Your problem is that you think-"

"I know", he said. "I'm very sexy." Then, he snorted.

I looked at him with wide eyes. Who did the guy think he was?

Malik held my hand and put it on his heart. "But you're not my type. For now, just practice", he said. I pulled my hand away from him.

"Forget it. I am sorry", I said and went into the house, leaving Malik standing alone in front of the house.

I kept thinking the whole night... Was that idiotic Malik right? Had I really forgotten how to smile?

* * *

**Hmm? What do you think? Has Ryou forgotten how to smile?**

**I know, the chapter's a bit confusing. I hope you liked it nevertheless. And sorry for the many P.O.V changes. I know they're a pain. Just had to do them.**

**Well, I hope to see you in chapter 6. ^-^**

**And please, please, leave me a review! (anonymous reviews are enabled, btw)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	6. Chapter 6 Masks and secrets

**Hey! Welcome to chapter 6!**

**Thanks for the reviews! ^^ They made me happy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! and I probably never will (sadly).**

**Chapter 6 Masks and secrets**

**Malik's P.O.V**

"What a beautiful smile", Ishizu said. She was sitting on the couch in our living room while I rummaged around the cabinet, looking for anything that could be interesting.

There were some CDs of 'Hakim', 'Umm Kulthum', 'Amr Diab' and other Arabian singers. I smiled. I knew Ishizu still loved her home country and couldn't let go of it completely, though she always told us that she was glad to live in Japan now and leave Egypt behind her.

Facade. Everything's only a facade, a mask. We all put masks on. Some people often, some rarely. You say you don't love someone, but in truth you do. Ishizu said she didn't miss Egypt, but she did. I acted as if I was a happy-go-lucky person, as if there was nothing I was afraid of, as if life was great all the time, as if I hadn't something to worry about, but in truth most of all that was a mask, a lie, something I told myself only to forget my problems, because I did have things that worried me, I was afraid of some things and my life wasn't that great. But I knew there were people whose life was worse than my own and sometimes the mere thought that there were those people distracted me from my problems and made me able to act happy and to sometimes forget my worries.

I thought that was good. People always would remember me as a happy person, a funny guy who loved to laugh, because I was a really good actor and able to hide my problems. Not always, but most of the time.

I turned to Ishizu. "Whose smile?", I asked and walked to the couch.

"Mana's... who else's?", she said and showed me the picture she looked at.

On the photograph were Mana and I. She embraced me and she was very happy. I remembered the day the photo was taken. Mana... one of the many reasons I came to Japan...

"The photo was taken at her wedding", I said and sat down next to Ishizu on the couch. "Where did you find it?"

"It was laying in this file", Ishizu replied and pointed to a file that lay besides her. "I spoke to Mana this morning", she said. "She told me you are meeting her today?" That was a question.

I nodded. "Actually, I was just leaving to go there." I wanted to stand up, but Ishizu put her hand on my leg and pushed me down.

"Should I come with you?", she asked me and looked at me, her blue eyes piercing. The worry in her voice was heavy, as always. When it was about me she never put a mask on. Never. Sometimes I thought it would be better if she would hide her worry...

I sighed. "What will you do there?", I asked her. She said nothing. I shook my head. "In any case, I want to speak to Mana in private. Okay?" Ishizu looked down for a moment.

"Aren't you scared?", she whispered. An awful silence followed.

It felt like I had a lump in my throat. I wasn't scared. No, I wasn't scared. And I didn't only told myself that. I really wasn't scared... was I? Was that the truth? Or just another mask? I wasn't sure...

In order to break the silence, I laughed softly and shook my head. Ishizu looked at me, her expression concerned.

"I'm not scared", I told her and put on my confident mask, my fingers crossed behind my back. "No, I'm not scared." Did she believe me? "You keep worrying unnecessarily. There's nothing to worry", I told her and she hugged and squeezed me. "Believe me", I whispered in her ear. She sobbed faintly and I stroked over her back. I hated the fact that she worried so much about me.

"I... have to go now", I said and stood up, leaving for my meeting with Mana.

**Ryou's P.O.V**

Joey and I sat in the bus which brought us to the mall. We were talking or at least trying to make a conversation, until Joey got distracted, like almost always.

"Oh my god!", he said all of a sudden and his brown eyes widened. "There! There! It's the guy I saw in the park the day before yesterday! Wow, he's so cute, Ryou."

He pointed at a boy, standing in the bus, his brown hair pointing up to the ceiling. He wore headphones and hummed a tune.

I rolled my eyes. "He looks cute to you?", I asked Joey.

"You don't find anyone cute!", he snapped.

"That's not true!", I hissed.

Suddenly, somebody tapped on my shoulder and startled me.

I turned round.

//Oh, no//, I thought.

"Hey, I can't hear anything!", said an all too familiar voice.

"What are you doing here, Malik?!", I asked him. No, why was he here, too? And there was no way to escape, as the bus was driving at the moment.

"Perhaps you don't know, but this is a public conveyance", he said and spoke as if he was talking to a small child. "That means everyone can use it."

"But... you were listening to our conversation?!", I accused.

He laughed. "First of all, how can you call this a conversation, and secondly, I wasn't listening. I was trying to listen, but if you speak so softly, how do you expect me to listen?"

I stared at him, my mouth open. This guy... Argh!

He stood up from his seat behind us and sat down next to Joey. "Excuse me, move your butt, move, yeah", he said and pushed Joey closer to me, so that he sat now on the half of my seat and the half of his seat, on the other half sat Malik.

"We don't know each other yet", Malik said. "I'm Mr. Grouch's new neighbor, Malik", he reached his hand out.

"Hi. I'm Mr. Grouch's old neighbor, Joey", Joey said and shook Malik's hand. I elbowed Joey. //Tsk... Mr. Grouch...//, I thought, angry.

"Ah, Joey", Malik said.

"Shut up!", I told him. "Joey and I were talking!"

"Now Joey and I are talking", he said and put his arm around Joey's neck. "Look Joey. Any guy who merely looks at you and will love you-"

"Will be blind", I interrupted them.

"Will be wrong! Ignore him.", Malik countered. " Where were we? Oh, yes. He should look into your heart deeply before he loves you and not love you because of your looks."

"You're right!", Joey said.

Malik chuckled. "I'm always right." Ah, how I hated him... Him and his attitude.

"Tell me something", he demanded. "Is there a guy here whom you like?"

"That one", Joey said and pointed at the boy with headphones.

"Yuck, I mean, Yes!", Malik added quickly. Then, he cleared his throat. "Uhm... Johnny!", he shouted. "Johnny!"

I turned away from Joey and Malik and looked out of the window, pretending I didn't know them as all the people stared at us now.

"His name's Johnny? Ya know him?", Joey asked him.

"Uh, well, uhm, no, I don't know him, but he... looks like the Johnny type", Malik explained. I merely shook my head. Like I've said already many times before: This guy is unbelievable.

"Johnny!", Malik shouted again.

The boy with the headphones finally looked in Malik's direction. He then put his headphones off of his ears.

"Are you talking to me?", he asked.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you, Johnny", Malik said.

"The name's Tristan", he corrected.

"Ah, Tristan then", Malik said. He put his hand on Joey's shoulder. "Tristan, my boyfriend here wants to leave me for you." Joey and I looked at him as if he was crazy, what he obviously was.

"He says you're cool, sexy. He says your hairstyle is wow", he continued. Joey was quite red in his face now. Malik sobbed theatrically. "What shall I do, Joey? So what if I don't know much about hairstyles? Are you going to leave me for this... shriveled mango?"

"What?!", the boy named Tristan said.

"Sorry, Tristan", Malik apologized and turned back to Joey. "How would you feel if I'd leave you for this... boring whitey?"

I turned round, my mouth open (again). "What?!" Boring? Whitey? But Malik ignored me.

"You are a lucky dog, Tristan", he said. "Go Joey, go live your life. Be happy, be prosperous..." Then, Malik buried his face in Joey's shirt and pretended to cry. He waved with his hand, gesturing Tristan to come.

"Is he coming?", he asked Joey lowly.

"Uh...", was all Joey managed to say.

"Hey! I'm Tristan", the boy said and reached out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Joey", Joey grinned.

"Joey? Sweet name", Tristan said. "I'm DJ at Advocates Café, Tokyo. Tonight's the retro night. Why don't you guys come along? You can bring whitey there along", he added and pointed at me.

For the third time in five minutes my mouth hung open. Joey and Malik snickered

The bus came to a halt. "Well", Tristan said. "You take care man", he tapped on Malik's shoulder, whose face was still buried in Joey's shirt. "Everything will be alright." Then, Tristan got out of the bus.

"Bye", Joey whispered.

Malik immediately stopped his fake crying. "How did you like my performance?", he asked Joey.

"Awesome!", Joey shouted happily.

"Awful!", I corrected.

"You're just jealous because Joey now has a boyfriend and you don't, whitey", Malik said.

"Hey, first of all, stop calling me 'whitey'! And secondly, I do... I have a boyfriend!", I snapped.

Both Malik and Joey's eyes widened in surprise. I was surprised as well. I didn't have a boyfriend after all...

"Ya do?", Joey asked curiously.

"You do? Who is he?", Malik questioned.

Oh, shit! What should I say now?

"Uh... Bakura", I told them quickly and hoped they would believe me.

"May I remind you that you said Bakura was 'just a friend'?", Malik said.

"I-I said that because I don't talk about my personal life to everyone!", I said.

Joey suddenly looked hurt. "But ya should've told me!", he whined.

"Oh, Joey, don't mind", Malik said and patted Joey's back. "We'll go to that club and whitey won't have to be there."

"Of course Bakura and I will come!", I told them.

.......

"Of course we won't go!"

"But Bakura! Why not?!", I asked him. I had picked him up in his lunch time after Joey and I had been in the mall. Joey had to go home, but I wanted to meet Bakura to tell him my plan and now we were walking to our favorite snack stall. Obviously, Bakura was less than thrilled about my plan.

"I said no!", he told me.

"Bakura!"

He sighed. "Duke is coming for dinner tonight, okay?", he explained.

"Oh, you can do all this, but you can't even come to dinner for me!", I reminded him of yesterday night.

"Hey!", he said. "That's not true! I came yesterday!"

"Yeah, but it was the wrong house you went in!", I told him.

Bakura sighed again. "Ryou, try to understand... Duke says he likes me-"

"Why wouldn't he say this", I interrupted him. "Now, he has finally found a father for his children. How stupid are you? His love is a lie!"

"So he's a liar? And what are you?", he snapped. "May I remind you that you told this... what was his name?"

"Malik", I replied.

"That you told this Malik that you and I were a couple", he went on. "So that's not a lie, huh?"

"I lied because that stupid Malik irritates me a lot!", I said.

"You just met him yesterday! How can he irritate you that much?", Bakura asked.

We arrived at the snack stall and lined up behind the other people.

"Do you know what he was saying?", I asked Bakura to explain to him why Malik irritated me.

"No, what?"

"You won't believe it", I said.

"Just tell me", Bakura demanded impatiently.

"That I don't laugh... Don't know how to smile... That I don't have a life... That I don't know how to live...", I listed.

Bakura put his hands on my shoulders and looked me into the eyes. "Ryou", he said calmly. "All that is true."

"I know!", I snapped and slapped his hands away. "But why should he be the one to tell me that?!"

Bakura sighed and turned to order the food. "Two cream bagels", he said to the saleswoman.

"Low fat!", I added.

Then, Bakura turned to me again. "Ryou...", he began. "This is stupid..."

"I just want to show him that even I can have a boyfriend. Someone who's cool, handsome and sexy...", I told him and hoped that my plan to get him to pretend to be my boyfriend would work. I turned to the saleswoman and asked: "How much?"

"Three-hundred yen", she told me and I pulled my purse out to give her the money.

"What did you say?", Bakura asked, addressing me. I looked at him.

"How much", I repeated.

"Three hundred yen", the saleswoman told me again.

"No, no. Before that", Bakura said.

"Before what?", I questioned.

"Before 'how much'", he told me.

"Three hundred yen", the saleswoman demanded impatiently.

"Just a second, lady", Bakura told her.

"Oh, that", I said. "I said that you are cool, handsome and sexy."

"You mean that? Do you really think I'm sexy?", he asked and ran with his hand through his long white mane. I quickly gave the saleswoman her money and then Bakura and I walked back towards his office building.

"Of course, Bakura", I said. Yes! My plan seemed to work. "But... you are right. Just for that stupid Malik, we don't have to pret-"

"No, no. let's do it", he interrupted.

"Let's do what?", I asked and raised an eyebrow.

"You know, me boyfriend, you boyfriend, we as a couple", he said.

"Hmm, but what about Duke?", I asked and put a finger on my cheek, faking a thoughtful expression.

"Who's Duke?", he said and his dark eyes were gleaming.

I laughed. "Okay. So we'll meet this evening at Advocates Café."

"That's in Tokyo", he muttered. We stopped walking as we were in front of the office building now.

"And? It's one of the most popular nightclubs. For a man as sexy as you, the short train ride to Tokyo surely won't be a problem, right?", I said.

"Of course not", Bakura said. "Let's already meet at the station in Domino. I hate traveling alone with the train", he mumbled.

I snickered. "Okay, then we'll meet at the station, at seven. Please be in time", I told him and headed home.

.......

I hadn't been in a nightclub for a while now. I was unsure about what to wear and tried on many of my clothes.

//Tsk. I'll show Malik who is boring//, I thought and grinned when I found something in my closet I had never worn up to now. The black leather jacket Bakura had once given me for my birthday. I'd scolded him, because he hadn't had to buy me something, but he'd insisted that I should have it. I'd told him that it was too expensive and that leather actually wasn't my style, but he'd said: "Maybe the time will come when you'll need something as cool as this. Then you'll be thankful."

Well, as it seemed, Bakura had been right. I took the leather jacket and put it on over my black t-shirt.

"Now, let's see who's boring, Malik", I mumbled and put on my tight jeans to complete my outfit for this night.

I took a quick look at my watch and realized that it was already quarter to seven. //I have to hurry//, I thought and combed my hair hastily, before I clattered down the stairs.

"Bye dad", I called quickly into the living room. "I'm going now!" As I closed the front door behind me, I could only just hear dad telling me: "Have fun!"

On the double, I headed to the station. Bakura was already there, waiting in front of the railway schedule. I recognized him because of his shimmering white hair.

As I approached, he didn't notice me. I cleared my throat, causing him to turn round. His eyes widened as he looked at me.

"Wow, Ryou... You look... amazing!", Bakura said, his mouth open.

I blushed slightly and rolled my eyes. "Always that tone of surprise", I said. "But thanks, anyway."

Bakura still gaped at me.

"You can close your mouth already", I told him, and he closed his mouth and smiled.

"That's the leather jacket I once bought you, isn't it?", he asked.

"Yeah, it is."

"I told you the day when you'd need it would come and apparently, today's the day!", he said.

"Yeah, yeah... So, when comes the next train to Tokyo?", I asked him.

"In ten minutes", he answered.

"Ah, okay", I said and walked to the ticket machine to buy us two tickets.

"Hey", Bakura said in passing. "Didn't you say your friend Joey would go to the club, too?" Was his tone a little nervous? Maybe because of the house-switching-incident yesterday. Joey probably had scared him a little, heehee.

"Yeah", I told Bakura. "But I phoned him earlier and he said, that he would go there with Malik, as he don't know where the club was."

"Who didn't know it? Malik?", Bakura asked.

"No, Joey of course", I said.

"And Malik does? I thought the guy just moved here from Egypt. How should he know?", Bakura said.

"How should I know?", I asked him. "Maybe he was there already. And actually, I don't care. If Joey wants to go there with Malik and not with us, then he shall do that. We'll see if they'll arrive at the club or if they got lost. I don't care... "

A little later, the train came and Bakura and I got in.

* * *

**End of chapter 6. I thought it was a good place to end it here. ^^ It's a bit shorter than the last one, but I hope you don't mind that too much.**

**So, in the next chapter, they'll be at the nightclub. Oh, and that club really exists (I did research because I searched for a name of a club and, yeah...). It's the Advocates café in Shinjuku ni-chome, Tokyo. Shinjuku ni-chome is a part of Tokyo with many gay bars and such things and Advocates café is a popular club there (but they say that all people are welcomed there, not only gay people, btw). At least that's what the internet says. ^^**

**Hmm, and what's Mana's role in all this? What's wrong with Malik? ... You'll get to know more in later chapters.**

**I hope you liked this chapter. Please leave a review. That would be really nice. ^-^**

**Hope to see you all in chapter 7.**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	7. Chapter 7 At the nightclub

**Hello, readers! ^-^**

**Sorry that it took me so long to write this. Forgive me?**

**Enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 7 At the nightclub**

**Ryou's P.O.V**

The train ride passed by quickly and quietly. There weren't that many other people in the compartment Bakura and I sat in, which was nice. Still, Bakura and I didn't talk much. Each of us merely looked out of the window.

However, the silence wasn't uncomfortable, no, it was... just right. I didn't know what to say at the moment anyway. I was thinking.

I would show this stupid Malik that I can laugh and smile, that I can be happy and that I am able to have a boyfriend... though Bakura wasn't my boyfriend. Nobody had to know that.

"Next stop: Shinjuku station", the voice in the train announced after a while, bringing both me and Bakura out of our thoughts.

"Do we have to get out here?", Bakura asked and looked at me, his dark brown eyes piercing like always when he asks me something.

I nodded. "Yes. And then about five minutes of walk and we're at Advocates Café. Got that?", I asked.

"Hell yeah", Bakura said and smiled.

"Good."

Then, the train came to a halt and we got out. Warm, stale air met us as we made our way past the many people that wanted to go into the train we just got out of. When we were past them, we saw that we stood in a huge hall in the Shinjuku station building. The station of Domino City, which had only two platforms, was nothing compared to this.

I hadn't been in Tokyo for a while, and I had to get used to the crowds of people who scurried around me again.

For a moment, Bakura and I merely stood on the spot, waiting for the crowds to disappear; not in thin air, but in all the trains that arrived at the station at that very moment.

When the majority of the people was gone, I looked to my left where Bakura stood and looked up at him.

My chocolate brown eyes met his dark ones, for a brief moment. I... don't know why but I had this... strange, _very _strange feeling in my stomach. And all I could hear was my heart throb: bam bam, bam bam, bam bam...

Bakura rose his eyebrow. "Are you planning on standing here for I don't know how long, or what, Ry?", he said.

I shook my head to clear my mind. What had this been all of a sudden? I didn't know and now really wasn't the right time to figure it out. I had other problems right now, after all, like proving myself to Malik.

I cleared my throat. "No", I said. "Of course not." Then, I took hold of Bakura's arm and dashed off in the direction of the exit, pulling Bakura behind me, until he freed himself and walked besides me.

"You lead the way", he said when we got out of the station building.

"Sure", I replied. "Because if you'd lead the way, we'd end up not where we're supposed to. You'd probably lead us to McDonald's, wouldn't you?", I asked, a smile on my face.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Haha. Now, let's get going", he said.

I sighed. "Of course", and we headed to the nightclub.

It didn't took us long to find it. As we approached, we could already hear the music.

"Hmm. At least they play good songs", Bakura muttered, more to himself.

"Yeah. Now let's get in", I told him and took his hand. It felt so warm, so nice, so soft in my hand...

Bakura twitched at my touch, just a little bit, but I had noticed it. However, I simply chose to ignore it. Eventually, this situation was strange not only for him, but for me, too. It felt weird to hold his hand, to pretend being his boyfriend. I'd never thought of Bakura in that way... Since the first time I'd seen him, I'd always simply thought of him as a friend, not more. After all it's just a stereotype that every one who's gay sleeps with his male friends...

But if Malik should buy this, we had to do the whole couple-thing as realistically as possible.

"C'mon 'Kura", I said and smiled at him.

"Okay, okay", Bakura said quickly. "But remember one thing: This was your idea, Ry."

"Yeah, yeah", I told him. "Now, follow me."

I lead him to the entrance, where we paid and then were allowed to go in.

It was warm in the club and loud and bright and crowded and the air smelled of alcohol. I tried to find Malik or Joey and it didn't take me long before I spotted them at the bar.

"Ready for show time?", I asked Bakura.

"I'm born ready", he chuckled and we went towards the others.

"Hey!", Malik called as soon as he saw us and waved. "Look, it's whitey and then he has to be Bakura!", he said to Joey.

"Yo, Ryou!", Joey welcomed us when we reached them. Then, he suddenly had a strange expression on his face, as if he was thinking (what surely couldn't be possible, could it?).

"Hi there", I said and cleared my throat. "Malik, Joey. This is Bakura. My _boyfriend_."

Malik whistled. "Well, well."

Joey opened his mouth to say something, his brow furrowed, but before he was able to speak, Malik talked again.

"Hey, aren't you the guy who walked into the wrong house the other day?", he asked.

Joey's eyes widened. "Ha, I knew it", he said and his eyes sparkled.

I heard Bakura gulp. Joey must have scared him. I'm not even sure if I want to know how...

"Well, yeah, that was him", I quickly said. "Anyways, you're already long here?"

"Nah, just about twenty minutes, somethin' like that", Joey answered, his eyes still fixed on Bakura, who seemed to be hiding behind me.

I turned round to face him. "No need to be scared", I wispered, so that only he'd hear me. "Joey has another victim now. Let's get something to drink, shall we?"

Bakura looked relieved and nodded, before he ordered a mocktail for me and a cocktail for him.

It wasn't long before Malik offered Bakura a liquor and they drank it in one go, almost synchronously.

"Hey guys", somebody suddenly said. It was Tristan. " Having fun?", he asked and put an arm around Joey.

"Yeah!", Malik replied. "Of course."

"Great", Tristan said. "Joey, I have to go to the DJ's cabin. You wanna go there with me, babe?"

"I'd love to!", Joey answered.

Before he followed Tristan, he turned to Malik. "Did you hear that?! He called me 'babe'!", he exclaimed, excited. "Oh, thank you, Malik! Without you this wouldn't be happening! Thank you! I love you"

Malik grinned. "Yeah, yeah. Now go and love him!"

Then, Joey disappeared in the crowd.

Malik turned to me and Bakura. "So tell me", he began. "How did you two first met?"

" ", I wanted to say that we'd first met in the evening classes, but before I could say something, Bakura already replied.

"In the parc", he answered quickly.

"Park?", I asked him and frowned.

"In the park?", Malik asked. "Uh... But I thought you two met because you studied together at MBA classes?"

Bakura opened his mouth to say something, but this time it was me who was faster to speak.

"So what?", I snapped. "Can't we meet in the park?"

"Of course you can meet in the park", Malik said quickly. "But... what have you been doing in the park?"

"Uhm", I mumbled.

"Very good question", Bakura said. "And, uhm... I had taken my dog for a walk. And he had taken his dog for a walk."

I sighed and shook my head mentally. This wasn't going to work.

"Ah, that's strange", Malik grinned. "But Ryou doesn't have a dog."

"Yes, well, no, uhm, yes", Bakura muttered.

"No", I quickly tossed in. "I had taken my neighbor's dog for a walk."

"Haha, that's even stranger", Malik chuckled. "I am your neighbor. And I don't have a dog."

Damn!

Bakura faked a laugh. "Ryou, you silly, silly boy. You forgot that you took my dog for a walk that day", he explained.

Malik laughed. "Bakura, you silly, silly boy. If he took your dog for a walk, then whose dog did you take for a walk?"

"Ahh... I have two dogs", Bakura stated.

"Oh", Malik said. "Really?"

"Yes, in fact I've got lots of dogs in my house. At times, even I look like a dog...", he added.

I couldn't watch them any longer, so I tossed in the conversation again.

"And then we met at a friend's house again", I said.

"Hmm. What's your friend's name?", Malik questioned.

"Uh, Duke", Bakura said.

"Duke?", I asked, confused.

Bakura pointed in the direction of the entrance. There stood Duke Devlin, his black hair in a ponytail and a dice dangling down from his right ear. He waved when he made us out.

"The same Duke with two filthy children...", Bakura muttered under his breath. "Hello Duke!", he then called.

"Hey, hi!", Duke said. "Bakura, what are you doing here? Didn't you say you were going out with your family?", he asked.

"Uhm, yeah. Here", Bakura said and pointed at me. "Meet my brother and", he pointed at Malik. "my cousin."

"Haha, he's a funny man", Malik said.

Meanwhile I and Bakura exchanged glances. I gave him an 'Oh great! What was that now, huh?' - look and he countered with a 'What else should I have said, duh?' - look.

"I just heard that this love story was born in your house", Malik said. My eyes widened. Uh-oh. Not good. Bakura gestured Malik with his hands that he should stop, but the Egyptian didn't see it.

"My house?", Duke asked, confused. Bakura bit his lip and took a sip of his cocktail.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Aren't you the same Duke who has two filthy children?", Malik asked and Bakura spat his drink out.

"What?!", Duke yelled. "Filthy children, huh? How dare you?"

"Are you mad? They are little angels", Bakura assured him. "Little angels."

"Shut up, you liar!", Duke said firmly. "You didn't even tell me you had a boyfriend!"

"I didn't even know it myself!", Bakura explained. Then he pointed at me. "He's not my boyfriend!"

"What?", Malik asked.

"Bakura!", I hissed.

"Duke, wait! Come on!", Bakura called after Duke, who vanished in the crowd.

"Bye bye!", Malik called. "Bakura, now I'm very confused. What's going on?"

"Ask him!", Bakura said angrily and turned to the bar, ordering more liquor.

"Ryou, I'm very confused right now. What's going on?", he asked again.

"You just shut up!", I told him and pointed with my finger at him. "You knew all along that Bakura and I aren't a couple. Then why did you act?!"

"Was I acting or were you?", Malik asked.

"It's you!", Bakura told us from where he was sitting at the bar.

I shot an angry glare at him. Then I turned to Malik again. "It's all because of you! Didn't you say: laugh, sing, smile, hehehe?"

Malik shook his head. "No, no. I said hee-hee."

"Oh, please, just keep quiet!", I told him. "What do you think? Coming here, dancing, singing and drinking... means living life? Well, anyone can do it. But I don't want to do it!", I said and crossed my arms over my chest.

"That's because you can't do it. You are a bloody bore", Malik told me.

Bakura nodded and turned to Malik. "You are a cute boy."

"Tell me about Duke", Malik said. "He's very hot, eh?"

"Hell yeah! He's very hot, man", Bakura answered.

"And he has to children?", Malik asked.

"Yeah, but-"

I looked back and forth between the two of them, then I narrowed my eyes and pushed them away, going to the bar and grabbing a glass of hard liquor.

I would show them all who was a bloody bore, ha!

So I chugged out the first glass. Then the second and Malik and Bakura merely watched me with wide eyes. I would show them! Yeah, I would show them!!!

**Malik's P.O.V**

One hard liquor was followed by another one. Bakura looked worried, but there was no reason to worry. After all, Ryou wanted us to show that he wasn't a bore. Here and now he had his chance, and he was willing to take it.

"Here, come on", I said and reached another glass of hard liquor to Ryou. "Go ahead."

Bakura's jaw dropped slightly when all liquor glasses that once had stood on the bar were now empty.

I clapped, smirking. This would be funny.

"Wohoo!", Ryou screamed. "Come on!", and he disappeared in the crowd.

He was completely sloshed and I was very curious how this would go on. My eyes followed Ryou, dancing through the nightclub, screaming every now and then.

Bakura didn't say anything. He merely looked at his friend, not really knowing what to do now. Surely, he hadn't seen Ryou in high spirits before.

It wasn't long before Ryou everntually reached the dance floor and yelled up at one of the dancers.

"Hey, you nude! Get down!", he shouted.

"Are you talking to me?", the dancer asked him, outraged.

"Yes, baby, I'm talking to you! Now, come on, get the fuck down!"

"What?", the dancer asked.

"Get down you scum!", Ryou yelled and grabbed the dancer at his shoulders and pulled him down from the dance floor. Then, he climbed up there himself and positioned himself in the middle of the dance floor.

"Hey! Stop this music!", he hollered.

All eyes were fixed on him now. Bakura gave me a concerned look, but I only elbowed him slightly and raised my eyebrows.

Well, it looked like Ryou wasn't that much of a bore in the end. He just didn't knew it.

The DJ put on another song and when it began, Ryou suddenly took of his jacket and threw it to the ground. I saw Bakura furrowing his brow.

A grin spread on my face. I knew exactly what Ryou was about to do.

"Come on, Ryou! Take it all off!", I shouted as loud as I could so that he'd hear me.

And indeed, Ryou started unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his beautiful, pale skin, which glittered in the light of the club.

Bakura facepalmed. "He's really taking off his clothes, man!", he stated and made a step towards the dance floor. I took hold of his arm.

"That doesn't matter. Everyone is almost nude here anyway", I told him.

"Come on, Ry!", I cheered and Ryou began to dance, the rest of the people imitating him.

After a while and some more drinks, even Bakura began to dance with the rest of the people. A little later, I joined them, too. It couldn't hurt after all.

However, every time I danced with someone, I felt Ryou's eyes on me. And when I turned to look at him, he quickly looked away, but not quick enough. I'd been able to see the look of jealousy on his face. But this surely didn't have to mean anything. He was drunk, after all, so I couldn't really take what he said or did serious at the moment.

Some songs later, Ryou came to me all of a sudden.

"I do ngh ngh", he muttered and fell to the ground.

"Ryou?", I asked.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Bakura.

"I think he is drunk", he told me.

Oh, Bakura. What a genius you are. I wanted to bent down to look what's wrong with Ryou just as Bakura also fainted.

I groaned.

A little later, the security grabbed both Ryou and Bakura and carried them out of the club. I followed them, of course.

"Hey, are you my mummy?", Bakura asked the man that carried him while Ryou screamed and struggled.

"Let go of me!", he yelled until the man let finally go of him outside the club.

"Ryou, calm down, please", I told him.

"Me? Why the hell should I calm down? Who are you that I have to listen to you anyway?", he shouted.

I looked in Bakura's direction, only to see that he was asking several people on the sidewalk if they were Mohammed Ali.

I turned back to Ryou. "My name's Malik and you're Ryou", I told him.

"Yeah, and that's Mohammed Ali", Bakura said and pointed at a random person walking past us.

"Shut up!", Ryou shouted. "I'm going!"

"Ryou, wait!", I said and took hold of his arm to stop him from walking onto the street and getting run over, ignoring Bakura who boxed against the air.

"No!", Ryou said. "All this is your fault, after all. You said that I was a bloody bore and that I should smile and sing and dance. And now that I do all this you're not satisfied either! I mean, what the hell, Malik?" He beat my chest with his finger. "Why are you so confused?!", he yelled at me.

"Hey, even I'm confused", Bakura tossed in. "Is he Mohammed Ali?"Again, he pointed at somebody, but I didn't care.

"Grr. Shut up!", Ryou shouted. "I'm going!"

"No, now listen, Ryou", I said and grabbed his arm.

"No! Leave me... leave me alone!", he struggled. "No!"

"Hey, listen", I tried again.

"No!!!", he screamed.

"SHUT UP!!", I yelled at him and took hold of him at his shoulders, staring him in the eyes. "If you scream, I'll slap you across your face!", I threatened.

Ryou's eyes went wide, with shock, with fear?

"Why are you shouting?", he mumbled.

"I'm not shouting", I told him.

"Excuse me", Bakura interrupted.

"Shut up!", I yelled at him, too and he flinched.

"Now you two. Hold hands and start walking", I ordered and reached my hands out so that I could lead them the way.

But what did they do? They took each other's hand.

I groaned and rubbed my forehead.

"No, you idiots! Not each others", I told them. "Hold _my_ hand. Now come on. We have to hurry!"

While we were walking, Ryou and Bakura each on one side, they began to sing.

"You're annoying", I mumbled.

"It's the time to disco, disco...", they sang.

"Please, both of you, shut up!", I said.

"Okay", Bakura answered.

For a brief time, we walked in silence. Suddenly, Bakura raised his hand. I looked at him.

"Yes? What is it?", I said.

"Can I say something?", he asked.

"Yeah, go ahead", I told him.

He grinned. "This feels like we're all going to school", he said.

"Yeah, you're right. Mum used to hold my hands like this and take me to school", Ryou said, his voice having a sad tone.

Bakura suddenly began to sob.

"What happened to you?", I asked him.

"Mum... I miss her so much!", he told me.

"Oh, I'm sorry... when did she die?", I questioned.

"She's alive! Can't I miss her?", Bakura said.

"Of course you can." It wasn't me who answered. It was Ryou. "I miss Mum very much... I don't know why she had to leave us and go away and kill herself. I miss her", Ryou sobbed.

Bakura looked at me with a questioning look.

"Can I?", he whispered.

I nodded. "Yeah." And I let go of his hand so that he could go to Ryou.

"Thank you, sir", he said to me.

"Hey, Ryou", he said softly. "You don't look nice when you cry. You look nice when you're angry. Whenever you miss your father, just think of me and you'll get angry, okay?" Bakura laughed and wiped away the tears that flowed down Ryou's cheeks. "Hey, I really like you. I like you, Ry. My day is not complete till I have met you", Bakura added.

"Really?", Ryou asked him. I let go of his hand, too, now and merely watched them.

"Yes, of course", Bakura said.

"Aww, you're so cuuuute!", Ryou giggled.

"Hey, I'm not cute, okay? I'm Mohammed Ali!", Bakura countered.

"No, you're cute!", Ryou stated and the two began to walk on, hand in hand, leaving me watching them.

I smiled upon seeing them. Upon seeing a smile on Ryou's face. I had achieved what I'd wanted to.

Quickly, I followed the two, so that they wouldn't run onto the street all of a sudden or get lost.

We arrived at the station just in time to get into the train. And while we were driving back to Domino, I looked out of the window, while Ryou and Bakura were asleep in their seats, next to each other, an image of peacefulness.

As we approached Domino City, it dawned already.

* * *

**Wohoo for drunk Ryou and Bakura! ^__________^ (What I just noticed is: Joey is still at the nightclub. They've forgotten him. ^^ No, of course he'll stay with Tristan this night and he'll carry him home sometime. =) )**

**So, what do you say to this chapter? I know, there was a lot of dialog, and few details... I hope it wasn't as bad as I believe it to be at the moment, because I've written all of it in the past four hours and now I'm really tired. So, please forgive me if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes in it. ^^**

**I hope you liked the chapter and all I can say is: Please be kind and leave me a review! And see you again in chapter 8, dear readers. :)**

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


	8. Chapter 8 Changes

**Thanks a bunch for the reviews! I really appreciate them. ^_____^ **

**And I'm terribly sorry that this chapter is so late, but I'm sure no one wants to hear my excuses, so... yeah.**

**Just a reminder: Bakura has a dog whose name is Laila. :D And Ryou's father is called Takumi.**

**Disclaimer: I (still) don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Chapter 8 Changes...**

**Malik's P.O.V**

... "Ugh"

I felt something furry lying on me as well as something warm next to me. Sleepy, I opened my eyes to look directly into the eyes of a dog, staring at me with said big brown eyes in a confused fashion. I furrowed my brow as I looked sidewards and saw nothing besides silvery-white hair. Bakura's hair. A little confused (and maybe even a little nervous), I looked back at the dog, whose expression was just as confused as my own now. Why was I lying with Bakura in one bed again?

Thankfully, I remembered everything after a moment again. After the disco visit I'd brought Ryou home and then Bakura, but as it had been already late (or early to be more precisely) I'd decided to stay at Bakura's apartment.

Having that clarified, I lay back down, somewhat relieved.

I just closed my eyes as a hand ruffled my hair.

"Morning Laila", Bakura mumbled, his eyes still closed.

The dog now looked more confused than before. Surely her name was Laila and she didn't understand why her master said her name but pet me.

"Uh, morning Bakura", I whispered.

"Laila, you are able to talk? When did you learn that?", Bakura muttered.

"Talk? Uh, woof, woof!", I barked, causing Bakura to jump.

"Malik? What are you doing here?", he asked, looking first at me, then at Laila and then at the bed.

I smiled, apologizing.

"Sorry. I brought Ryou home last night and then when you and I arrived at your apartment it was already late, so I stayed", I explained.

"It's alright", Bakura said and sat up.

"Now, can I have some water please?", I asked him.

"It's over there." Sighing he pointed to a glass of water standing at his side of the bed on a small table. "Get it yourself."

I shrugged and leaned forward over him to reach the glass of water.

"Oh, last night", he yawned, stretching his arms. "Oh-"

The clinking of glass hitting the floor interrupted him and made us both look into the direction of the noise.

There, in the doorway, stood a young, brown haired girl, her mouth agape and her blue eyes widened at the sight in front of her: Two men together in one bed, one of them lying on the other's stomach... I knew what she must have been thinking and I had to smile involuntarily.

"Bakura?", I began and snuggled up to him, wanting to tease the girl, "Who is she? Introduce us to each other!"

"Uh, Malik!", he said and gave me a what-the-hell look. "Téa, this is not what it looks like, I swear", he told her quickly.

"Ugh, yes, of course not, Bakura-sama", she answered, blushing and crouched down to pick up the broken bowl and clean up its spilled content. "I-I'll bring you your breakfast and the n-newspaper in a minute. W-what can I get your guest?"

Aha, I understood. Téa was Bakura's maid.

"Oh, what can you get me?", I said thoughtful and kept snuggling up to Bakura while I was watching the girl, Téa blushing more and more. "Hmm... A banana!", I told her, grinning.

"A-Anything else, Bakura-sama?", she asked carefully.

"No, nothing else, Téa."

Then she was out of the bedroom.

"Bye, Téa!", I called after her.

As soon as she was out of sight, Bakura shoved me away rudely, causing me to fall out of the bed and hit the floor with my bottom.

"Ow!", I muttered.

"What the hell, Malik? What was that supposed to mean?", he demanded, his arms crossed over his chest.

I snickered and picked myself up. "I just wanted to tease her a little is all", I explained, sitting down on the bed again and earning an eye roll from Bakura.

"Well, don't do it again, or else I-"

"What do you do then?"

"Or else I-"

"Yes?"

"Malik!"

"Bakura!"

"Argh, would you stop doing that?!", he shouted.

I raised my hands in an innocent gesture. "Okay, okay. Jeez, no reason to shout."

"Thanks... Now, do you want some coffee?", Bakura asked me.

"Yeah, why not?"

A little later, we went into his kitchen and found us talking about Ryou.

"So", I began while pouring some coffee into a cup, "You didn't meet Ryou in the park then?"

"No", Bakura laughed and brought a can of milk out of the refrigerator. "We met in the MBA classes.

You know, when I first met him, I didn't like him at all. But now..."

"I know", I told him and we sat down at the tiny table in his kitchen. "Isn't it strange? You guys are so close to each other... you spend so much time together... you even take your dogs out for walks together", I snickered and poured some milk into my coffee. "Do you want more?"

"Oh no, I don't want more, Malik", Bakura said quickly . "With Ryou... I'm happy with just being friends."

"Not Ryou. I was talking about the milk", I told him.

"Oh."

"So, do you want more?", I asked him again.

"Uh, yes, a little, please", he answered.

I took a look at my watch. "Oh, looks like I have to go now, Bakura. Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome. See you, Malik."

I was already at the door, when I remembered something.

"Oh!", I said and quickly went back into his kitchen. "I forgot to tell you. I didn't know much about Ryou, but now I know everything. Thanks to your diary." I pointed to a small black book lying on the kitchen counter where I've put it down.

"You've read my diary?", Bakura asked me, his dark brown eyes widened, shocked.

"Not all of it... Only till the part where you've written that you wear read underwear", I told him and chuckled. "Red underwear!"

"Malik! That's not cool! How dare you read my diary? You cannot simply do that! Man...", I heard him shouting after me, but I was already gone.

**Ryou's P.O.V**

The following Sunday, I went to church with my father. And who was there, too, sitting three rows behind us?

Malik!

I tried to ignore the fact that he was here, too, but after the service, he came up to my father.

"Takumi!", he called as he approached. "Hi!"

"Hello, Malik. How did you like the service?", my father asked him.

"It was very nice", Malik answered.

"That's great, Malik", my father smiled. "Now, I have to speak with the Father."

"Okay, see you Takumi. Bye", Malik said. How I hated it when he called my father by his first name as if they were old friends...

As my father went away, I approached Malik.

"You!", I said when I stood next to him.

"You? What are **you** doing here?", he exclaimed. "Wherever I go, you follow me!"

I gaped at him. So **I **was following **him**, huh?

"I beg you, please leave me alone", he said and went away.

Angry, I followed him.

"Malik!"

"Do you have to come again?", he questioned and crossed his index fingers so that they formed a cross, the way people in movies chase away a demon. "Please go away, go, go!"

"Argh..." Furious I was the one who walked away now. That stupid Malik... You weren't able to talk to him in a normal way.

A hand grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"Ryou, stop. I was just joking. Come on", Malik turned me round so that I faced him.

"I want to say something to you", he said.

"Well, I don't want to listen to anything."

"You shouldn't say 'no' in a God's house", he told me.

"I-"

"Shut up", he whispered and took my hand. I shook my head and looked down at the floor. Why did he have to be like this? Everyone had to do what he wanted...

"Last night, for the first time I felt that you are like other boys."

I furrowed my brow and looked at him.

"You can be happy, you can party and drink and... simply be normal.

But for some reason it seems as if you want to hide that side of you."

I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Just one more thing. Wherever she is, your mother is looking at you. Your anger, your sorrow, she's watching everything. And perhaps she's crying with you."

I looked at Malik, who was serious for once and not fooling around or trying to make fun of me.

"Now", he continued. "You can't wipe away her tears from here, but you can stop them by smiling and laughing. With your dimples you can stop her crying."

He poked me carefully into my cheek some times and I couldn't help but smile this time.

"And Ryou. Please let go of my hand", Malik said. I looked down at our intertwined fingers. "What will people say?"

Then, he went through the doors of the church. And I... I was still standing where he'd left me.

At that very moment, I realized something. Something important. Something that should change everything.

I could no longer deny it. Malik was right. With everything he'd said. And Malik Ishtar's magic was spreading everywhere, in all directions, casting a spell over everyone, whether they liked it or not. Everyone was being swept off their feet.

Malik had achieved many things in the short time he was here: my grandpa and his friends had stopped singing (if you could call it that) to the Egyptian Gods everyday; downstairs in our kitchen he, Ishizu and my father cooked many different meals, which also meant that grandpa couldn't complain about pizza being the only food eaten in our family anymore; outside on the street Yugi was playing basketball with the other boys, because Malik carried my tri-color haired brother on his shoulders over the field. Malik could do anything... anything.

Amane's perfect family in her doll house had a new entry. Malik.

And as for me... I was laughing. I had learnt to smile, learnt to enjoy life.

It was scary. So much happiness... Was sorrow just waiting around the corner?

**Malik's P.O.V**

I was sitting in a restaurant with Mana. She had called me this noon that she had to meet me as soon as possible, so I came here directly. But now, since I had arrived at the restaurant, she hadn't said anything. She was just staring at the table.

After a while, I couldn't stand her quietness anymore.

"Hey", I began and she looked up. "What happened? Why are you so quiet today? Has someone died?"

"Shut up, Malik!", she told me slightly upset. "Listen. I need some more time."

"No, you cannot have more time", I explained. "The restaurant is going to close sometime. You have to order now. Or do you think the cook wants to stand in his kitchen all night?"

"I'm not talking about the restaurant!", she shouted.

"Hey, calm down. I was just joking, Mana", I told her.

"But, Malik, it's not the time to joke!", she said, her brow furrowed. She was worried.

"Yeah, yeah."

"It's a serious problem!", she continued.

"Right."

"I had already told you before you came to Domino City-"

"What do you mean?", I interrupted her. "Are you saying that I shouldn't have come?"

"When did I say that?!", she asked.

"Isn't that what you're saying?", I questioned.

"No, I never said this!", she told me.

"But you think it, right?", I asked.

"No, of course not!"

"You're lying", I stated.

"No, I am not, Malik!", she was really angry now. "You don't understand! I need more time... Yours and mine."

I sighed. "I understand, Mana. Really, I do", I assured her. "I came all the way from Egypt to Domino City just for you... because of you. Now, whatever you tell me to do, I will do it. And as for time... all my time is yours."

**..........**

The next morning, I was sitting at the counter in the game shop Mr. Mutou owned. Everyone was here. Ryou, Yugi, Amane, Takumi, Ryou's grandfather, Bakura and Joey.

Takumi had gotten a phone call from the bank and was now telling us about it.

"Two months...", he said sadly. "We have to leave the game shop in two months..." Everyone gulped.

"If you don't mind", Bakura began to speak, "Maybe I can do something."

"Ra almighty!", Ryou's grandfather exclaimed. "Are these times that bad so that we have to seek help from someone who has rich parents?"

Takumi glared at his father-in-law.

"I wonder whose evil eye has fallen upon us", grandfather said and looked at Amane with narrowed eyes.

"Must be yours", Takumi told him. "Tell me. When did you ever help me with anything? You really don't have a reason to feel bad today, because this game shop was never and is none of your business.

"Dad, please", Ryou piped up. "The two of you... please don't start arguing again! This is a serious problem..."

"With a simple solution", I said and every eye in the room was on me now.

"Shut up, Malik. This is our family problem", Ryou told me.

"That's why I'm saying", I countered.

"But we aren't-", Ryou began, but I interrupted him.

"Shut up, whitey." I turned to his father then. "Takumi, your game shop doesn't run... It shouldn't." I paused. "Why should it? Just tell me some reasons which make this shop special. What in this game shop is available that isn't available anywhere else in this street?"

Another pause. "Nothing. Takumi, come here." I held him by his arm and drew him towards the window. "Tell me. Why is this big game shop over there doing so well?", I asked him and pointed to a house on the opposite side of the street.

"Because it's Kaiba's", Yugi said.

"No", I told him. "It's not because it is Kaiba's. It's because Kaiba offers his customers things your game shop does not offer. Because Kaiba's shop is a new shop and has new games. However, not all of today's people do like those brand-new video games or board games. Many also like the good old card or board games.

The main point why his shop is successful and yours is not is that he's advertising his products and his shop. People get his attention. But your shop doesn't do such a thing. That's why most people probably don't even know of the existence of the Kame Game Shop, you know."

"But Malik... We simply don't have money for advertising", Takumi explained.

"I know, Takumi. And I'm not saying that you have to advertise in a paper or something. No. Why not simply print some flyers with a few offers written on it and hand them out to people in the city?"

"I don't believe in this nonsense", Ryou said.

"And I told you already to shut up", I told him. "We can do this! Because we can do anything, anywhere and whenever we want to."

"But Malik-", Takumi began.

"No, Takumi. Try. We have to try this. There's no harm in trying. Because those who try never lose. Never!"

A moment of silence passed.

"Alright", Takumi smiled.

"Okay!", I said. "Now, everyone. Are you with me?"

Several "yes"es and "of course"s could be heard and even Ryou's grandpa agreed.

So we all began to either clean the shop, draw placards for the windows or write flyers. Everyone had something to do.

It was already afternoon when we were finished. Joey and Ryou were gone and handing the flyers out in the city. So all we had to do now was to wait for customers.

And surprisingly, it didn't take long for the first one to come and for others to follow.

People finally noticed the small game shop again, that was running now.

**Ryou's P.O.V**

At the end of the day, after the shop was closed, my father embraced Malik. I hadn't seen my father this happy for a long time.

I... was truly thankful for what Malik had done today. I had doubted that he'd manage something like this, but Malik had proven me wrong like he had so many times in the few days he was here.

.........

"Why?"

"Why?"

"Yes... Why?", I asked again.

"What why?", Malik questioned.

I was sitting with him on the couch in his living room.

"God knows where you came from-", I began.

"Egypt", he tossed in.

"Right", I continued, smiling a small smile. "You came and suddenly so much around us, around me has changed.... I mean...", I said shakily and looked down at my lap and shook my head. "I mean, you don't even know us... I just don't understand why?"

"I did all this for you", he explained, serious now. I looked up into his lavender eyes. "I did all this because of you, Ryou..." He paused and took my hands into his hands. "Isn't that what you wanted to hear?"

I snickered and shook my head. "No, no... Malik-"

"Ryou... Ryou", he said. "Eyes."

I looked at him, questioning.

"Have you seen your father's eyes?", Malik asked me. I nodded. "There's a lot of pain in them. Whatever I have done, I have done for those eyes.  
You know, I have a problem. I cannot see any father's or mother's sorrow or pain. Because parents are strange."

I chuckled. Malik looked up to the ceiling.

"When God made them, he put all the things that were meant to be here" He pointed to his head. "here into their hearts." And he pointed to his heart. "So this is where they think from, understand and love.  
They also have another problem. They listen to other's conversation and start crying at the smallest things. And the same goes to older siblings who have taken over the part of a parent. My sister must be crying right now."

He and I both looked to the doorframe where his sister stood, indeed crying.

"You silly boy", his sister said, smiling.

I snickered.

"What do you mean with heehee, Ryou?", he asked me, grinning. "I did so much for you... at least say 'Thank you'."

"Thank you", I said. "Thank you for everything, Malik."

"Hey, whitey", Malik looked into my eyes and came closer on the couch towards me. "Ryou..."

And closer...

And closer. And then, he bent forward and kissed me. His tanned hands on my cheeks and his soft lips on mine... It was as if the time stood still for a moment or two. My eyes widened, surprised, shocked, and I caught my breath.

When he stopped, he moved a little away from me. I simply sat there, next to him, on the couch, my eyes still widened, trying to understand what exactly had just happened.

I was confused. This had messed everything up...

"Malik", I whispered.

* * *

**OMG! Malik kissed Ryou! O.O And now poor Ryou is utterly confused and doesn't know what to think. How will things go on? The only thing I can say is: Stay tuned! ^___^ I still have some twists and turns in my sleeve. ^^**

**I also want to ask you something, dear readers. Do you think the many changes of P. are annoying? Should I write the next chapters in Author's P.O.V? If I'd do that I would of course rewrite the other chapters on occasion (probably after I've finished the story). **

**Please tell me whether you liked this chapter or not! ^-^ And I promise that you won't have to wait that long again for the next chapter**.

**~Crystal of Moonlight~**


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